PORT TOWNSEND — The first Jefferson County election in 2014 will differ from those held over the past 31 years in that Karen Cartmel will not be supervising the process.
“I’ve worked on 120 elections, not including recounts,” said Cartmel, 56, who is retiring.
“But I want to be able to enjoy my retirement years.
“My parents retired and got sick, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.
“I didn’t want to die at the courthouse.”
Cartmel’s last day as elections supervisor will be Dec. 20.
She began working in the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office part time in the licensing division in 1977 a few months after she graduated from high school.
She began full-time work two years later.
She took over as elections supervisor in January 1983, when Pat Knapp was elected county auditor, and has held the job since.
“I didn’t go to college,” she said.
“I landed the job here, knew it was a good one and wasn’t going to give it up.”
Cartmel decided several years ago that she would retire early and timed the action to coincide with the expected retirement of Auditor Donna Eldridge, who has said she will not run again when her current term — her fifth — expires in December 2014.
“I could have retired along with Donna, but we decided that it would not be a good thing for the office or the public for us to go out at the same time,” Cartmel said.
“It wouldn’t be fair to face a new election with a new auditor and a new elections supervisor.”
Cartmel considered retiring last year but decided to stay on “to add a bit more to my pension” and chose to not wait until 2015 “because I didn’t want to have to train another auditor.”
Cartmel, along with Eldridge, trained her successor, Betty Johnson, now the voter registration coordinator.
“We had the luxury of training Betty all year long,” Cartmel said.
Johnson’s promotion will cause “a big shuffle.” Her position will be filled from within by recorder Bonnie Swofford, and that will create a vacancy.
Cartmel once harbored the ambition to run for the county post but gave that up after Eldridge took office because “I didn’t want to ruin a good thing.”
She was skeptical about vote-by-mail when the idea first emerged but changed her mind after a 1997 statewide referendum on a new Seattle stadium.
“I didn’t favor it at first because it was an unknown quantity, but after that referendum, I had to eat crow,” she said.
“I realized then it was a good thing because we didn’t have to man the polls.
“In those days, we had to get poll workers who would cancel at the last minute or not show up at all, so we had to send out staff members to watch the polls.”
Cartmel continued to vote in person — “I was the only poll voter in the office” — before the state changed to all-mail voting in 2005.
Cartmel, who is divorced, has two daughters and five grandchildren. She said they will keep her busy during her retirement, along with some home projects.
As soon as she retires, she will take a vacation to Hawaii.
A vintage rock fan, Cartmel recently traveled to Skagit County to see a performance by the latest iteration of Eric Burdon and the Animals, and had her picture taken backstage after the show.
“It was really cool getting that picture,” she said.
“But he’s gotten really old.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.