Specialist to review election division

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has hired an election specialist from Harvard University to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the city's troubled Election Department, city officials said yesterday.

David King, a public policy lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government who chaired a national task force on election administration after the 2000 presidential election, will look at the department's procedures and staff and make recommendations for improvements. He will also hear recommendations of a separate task force Menino appointed and help develop a "model elections system" for the city, according to a news release from the mayor's office.

Roughly 30 precincts ran out of ballots on Election Day, and crowds of voters waited up to two hours as the city rushed more ballots to polling places in police cruisers. Some people left without voting. The mayor characterized the debacle as a management failure and vowed to have an independent specialist review the elections department.

"The fact that voters had to wait in line to vote two weeks ago is incomprehensible and something I never want to see happen again," Menino said in a statement. "David King is a highly regarded national elections expert and will work to develop a blueprint for excellence in elections procedure."

Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who pledged last week to take over city elections, has been informed of the mayor's selection of King, a spokesman said. Any review the city has initiated will not affect the secretary's review.

"The secretary is going forward with his investigation and supervision of the Election Department," said Brian McNiff, the secretary's spokesman.

Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.