Secretary of State Debra Bowen is one of California's most important administrators. Her job demands oversight of elections and corporate registrations, and the former Democratic legislator's hands have been full since her first day on the job in 2007.

Of her accomplishments in that capacity, her implementation of safeguards against voting machine inaccuracy and tampering has to rank highest. Bowen sued one supplier of faulty machines and limited the technology's widespread use to reassure voters that the democratic process remains credible here.

With suspicion about the machines' security clouding at least two national elections in the last decade, her action made sense -- and she was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for her efforts. Bowen also cut her agency's budget by more than 25 percent, an important achievement in a tough economic environment.

Though Bowen's tenure hasn't gone without criticism, we think her experience makes her the logical choice in the campaign against Republican Damon Dunn.

Dunn has some strengths as a candidate but the fact is, he failed to register to vote until 2009. That irony alone, given the fact that registering voters is one of the job's primary responsibilities, gives us pause. Dunn, a former NFL player, generally lacks experience in this sort of undertaking and ought to start with another office, such as the Assembly.

Bowen has stumbled on some fronts, owing largely to budgetary limitations created by the state's economic meltdown: Her plans to roll out online voter registration and campaign finance disclosure information have lagged.

She has also been deservedly criticized for an apparent lack of oversight in the city of Bell, whose former leaders are under investigation for alleged election fraud. Then there was her silence on a court's overturning of Proposition 8, the state's ban on same-sex marriage. As an advocate for voters, she should have been more vocal in representing their concerns.

But even with those shortcomings and inconsistencies, Bowen is the better choice over the inexperienced, voter-come-lately Dunn. We endorse Bowen for secretary of state.