The “new” director of elections for King County is Sherril Huff.

In this wacky, fun-filled election, it should be noted that Huff was also the “old” director of elections who was a very reluctant candidate — and the only one actually qualified for the job.

Huff, with 46 percent, leads former Republican County Councilman David Irons, who had 19 percent, Republican State Sen. Pam Roach with 15 percent, and Republican gadfly Chris Clifford with 3 percent. Independent Auburn resident Bill Anderson had 8 percent, and former elections worker Julie Kempf had 6 percent.

Huff served as assistant elections director to Dean Logan for two years before he left for a similar position in Los Angeles. She was then promoted after the other candidates backed out when they heard there was a movement to make the position elected. She opposed making the position elected and did not want to run for election.

However, she was persuaded by Executive Ron Sims and others to move from Kitsap County to Seattle, and ran after everyone got a look at the potential candidates for the position. Then the entertaining part started.

First, Chris Clifford challenged Huff’s residency and eligibility, although the canvass board ultimately found in Huff’s favor.

Then Julie Kempf, who was fired from the elections department for dishonesty among other reasons, said she was running because someone put a threatening note on her car window. That was followed by media reports that both Huff and Kempf had some tax problems. Huff was able to demonstrate that hers was a misunderstanding and had been cleared up. However, Kempf, who also said people should elect her for her budget skills, was found to have faced foreclosure several times for not paying her mortgage, including when she was employed in the elections department.

Then an Eastside group billing itself as Citizens for Accountable Elections was found to actually be a group of Republicans, including some current and former office holders who wanted Irons to win, so they endorsed Irons and Kempf. Though a Democrat, Huff distanced herself from Democratic office holders and the Democratic Party, so she had no name familiarity and very little fundraising ability. The Democratic Party did donate $30,000 to her toward the end of the election.

Irons loaned his campaign more than $100,000 and had Attorney General Rob McKenna make calls for him.

Then an already strange race got even stranger. The Seattle Times ran a story about Irons’ mother claiming he abused her, his sister running against Irons for public office a few years ago, and the parents supporting the sister. The whole episode was old news to most Eastside voters, but not to many others. All this was followed by a front-page story in the Seattle Times about Kempf’s previous arrest for fraud, forgery and trying to run down a police officer with her car. Although arrested, she was not charged, and McKenna’s Attorney General representative decided not to pursue the case.

Not surprisingly, after the election, Irons and Roach took turns criticizing each other for costing the other one votes, and being the spoiler. There was also some criticism of Clifford and Anderson for taking away votes from the two Republican leaders.

Most objective voters felt it would not have mattered. Huff was just simply the only truly qualified candidate. Except for Anderson, all the others have had a lot of negative issues around them and no actual experience. So despite the bizarre nature of the campaign, the right candidate probably won, even though the turnout was only 22 percent.

But the term is only for a little over two years to put it on the King County election cycle for 2011. Some observers don’t expect Huff to run again. So who will run next time — and will it get crazier?