Edit: The fuse holder mentioned below did not work as a receiver for the heating element terminals. I've left this post in for reference.
I might have just short circuited (pardon the pun) the pan cord issue. I'm looking at a midget fuse block that, if attached at the right height in the bottom of the box, will clip onto the locknuts on the terminals of the heater element when the pan is in the right position. My intent would be to have the power off when setting or disconnecting the pan. I would need to do something similar for grounding the pan, but if this works, I would just use high temp wire between the fuse block and switch. It would make pan alignment more critical, but some spacers mounted on the sides should help with that.