Slockett is a calm, courteous professional

Having served as member or chair of the Johnson County Elections Board under the direction of Auditor Tom Slockett for more than 20 years, I find it peculiar that people question his work environment. Tom always has been a quiet, calm, kind and courteous professional, even under the stress of close elections and momentous technological change as he innovatively led the county from the days of curtain-pulling to electronic datascan processing.

Slockett has many employees in addition to the one in his main office who has expressed personality conflict from an intra-office dispute.

There is the full-time staff, but there also are those of us who have served on the elections board, plus dozens of workers who process absentee ballots and hundreds of individuals who work at polling sites throughout the county.

As Slockett's employees, we are legally registered as Democrats or Republicans, for state law requires representation of both major parties and Slockett is tenacious in this duty. In his 35 years as auditor, not one of Slockett's bipartisan election employees has filed a complaint against him.

It is unfortunate that Tom's opponent allows his supporters to degrade the reputation of one of Johnson County's finest government officials. Voters should prefer the candidate who runs a clean campaign.

Joyce Duffy

Solon