Competence over politics. Modern systems. Better service.
The Pierce County Auditor runs elections, recording, and licensing for the second-largest county in Washington, nearly a million residents and roughly 600,000 registered voters. The job is operations, and it deserves an operations professional.
I served as Pierce County's Elections Supervisor for five years, and was Interim Elections Manager in Clallam and Cowlitz counties during the 2020 presidential election. I have spent two decades managing telecommunications networks and twenty-four-hour critical systems. I have built and modernized the systems this office runs on. I am ready to expand that work to recording and licensing.
Important dates: Primary, August 4, 2026. General election, November 3, 2026.
When government offices are run well, citizens feel it every day, and most of the time, do not notice. That is the goal.
Born in Puyallup. Raised between Roy and east Tacoma. Found my spouse in Eatonville. Now in the Gig Harbor area. Pierce County is where I live, where I work, and where I have run elections.
Pierce County Elections Supervisor, 2014 to 2019. Interim Elections Manager in Clallam and Cowlitz counties during the 2020 presidential election. Trainer and subject matter expert for the Washington Secretary of State on voter registration. Helped earn the office two Clearie Awards for elections efficiency. Ballots, audits, certification, signature verification. I have done the work before running for the office.
Network Operations Supervisor at Lightcurve. Two decades managing high-tech infrastructure: telecommunications, data networking, incident response, and twenty-four-hour critical systems. LEAN Green Belt with hands-on experience in process management and continuous improvement.
The Auditor's Office is nonpartisan by Pierce County charter. I am a proud Cascade Party member, and the Cascade Party is a partial bridge between the two major parties. I will not claim nonpartisanship in public while quietly belonging to a major party in private. As your Auditor, I will act as a referee and an impartial operator of elections.
Pierce County is a charter county. Our charter, adopted in 1980, sets the duties of the elected Auditor by local choice, not state default. In 2007, voters amended the charter to make the Auditor a nonpartisan position.
The Pierce County Auditor does not handle general county accounting or financial auditing. Those functions are split among the Executive, the Assessor-Treasurer, and the State Auditor's office. The Pierce County Auditor runs operations:
About 65 full-time staff and 200 to 300 seasonal election workers. Biennial budget of $28 million.
The Auditor's job is operations, not advocacy. In nearly every county in Washington, the Auditor is promoted from inside the office. There is a reason. The role is technical: election law, recording, licensing, vendor compliance, staff workflow. When the role is filled by someone whose background is in politics rather than operations, the office is at a disadvantage from day one, and the public eventually pays for it.
When I started as Pierce County's Elections Supervisor, we were processing ballots on the same equipment that had been installed when I was in high school in 1994. I led the modernization of our tabulation system and developed the procedures that came with it. The majority of Washington counties now use that system and the workflows we built at Pierce County. I have done the hard work of leaning and modernizing the elections function. I want to bring the same discipline to the licensing and recording sides of the office.
Most candidates for this office come from one of two backgrounds: elections experience, or technology experience. I have both.
The Cascade Party is a bona fide party in the state of Washington, founded for Washingtonians tired of the constant manufactured outrage of national politics. Members vote on the platform and bylaws directly, not through a national committee. We believe there is a bridge to better between the extremes of the two major parties.
The party's motto is Live your best life. I serve on the party's board, and I am transparent about that. Learn more at cascadeparty.org.
Email: damon@electdamontownsend.org
Mailing address: Elect Damon Townsend, PO Box 1932, Gig Harbor, WA 98335