County told to weigh all-mail voting delay

If federal officials don't approve a new line of ballot-counting equipment by early February, King County should delay its planned transition to all-mail voting until 2009, county elections division officials recommended Monday.

In a report to the County Council, the division said the county should not try to conduct all-mail voting in 2008 using existing equipment, which is the option the council has said it prefers. Although the division could try some strategies to conduct an all-mail election on the current equipment, the risk of breakdowns and delays makes that approach ill-advised, the report says.

Councilman Bob Ferguson, D-Seattle, said Monday that he wants to review the report before making a final decision, but that he's likely to defer to elections officials.

"They're the experts," he said.

It's unlikely the council will override the division's objections to conducting an all-mail election with existing equipment, Ferguson said.

"We've got to take our time and do it right," he said.

Ferguson has been a leader in addressing elections issues on the council, which last summer asked the division to deliver a report by Monday on the options for all-mail voting.

Ferguson said he also agrees that if the required federal certification for the new equipment doesn't come through by early February, then that equipment should not be used for an all-mail election in 2008. Even winning certification at that time would be pushing it as far as 2008 goes, he said, given that the presidential vote shapes up as a big one and the division just recently moved to new headquarters in Renton.

But the report says the division should be able to handle a move to all-mail voting if the certification is issued by early February. That would fit into a schedule that would allow for testing the new equipment and phasing it in as part of a limited, special election in May that would be conducted under the existing dual system of mail ballots and poll voting, the report says. Full mail voting would then be initiated countywide in the August primary.

The report reaffirms the views that elections officials have expressed for months, while offering more details on why some suggested fixes for the existing equipment are risky or contrary to state law.

The council voted in 2006 to move to all-mail voting, which has been adopted by all but a few counties in Washington state. Most King County voters already cast ballots by mail: In the 2004 election, for example, more than 560,000 mail ballots were cast in King County, compared with 335,000 poll votes.

New high-speed ballot counters and software are needed to handle the increase in mail ballots that would occur if poll voting is eliminated, elections division officials say. They intend to buy the counters from Premier Election Solutions, a company formerly known as Diebold Election Systems.

Federal officials were expected to certify the equipment in October, the report says, but the process was delayed when Premier improved security features in response to issues raised by elections officials in California and Florida.

Under an all-mail voting system, all voters are mailed ballots. They can return them by mail, by depositing them in drop-off boxes set up around the county or by turning them in at one of a dozen regional voting centers. Or, voters could vote in person at the regional centers.

Supporters of all-mail voting say it will reduce the likelihood of errors by simplifying elections under one, unified procedure. Opponents claim mail voting is more vulnerable to fraud.