County extends deadline for all-mail voting

The Metropolitan King County Council decided Monday to give the elections department until 2008 instead of 2007 to start all-mail voting.

A week after county elections director Dean Logan resigned, the council set several conditions for the switch: hiring a replacement for Logan, filling the elections-superintendent position, hiring consultants to improve the department's culture and approving a cost plan that includes ballot drop boxes and regional voting centers for the relatively few people who would still vote in person.

The council approved $1.6 million for a project team to focus on starting all-mail voting, public outreach and education, and upgrades to the election facility near Boeing Field.

"Some say we should wait for a new director, a new superintendent," said Councilwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac. "I don't agree with that. We need to send a clear message."

The vote split along party lines with support from all five Democrats, and opposition from the four Republicans.

"This is the wrong thing at the wrong time," said Republican Reagan Dunn of Bellevue. "It's an American thing to go to the polls and pull the lever." He reiterated his desire for an elected auditor to run county elections.

Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, failed to get enough support for her proposal to hold an advisory election in which King County residents could vote on whether they want the county to move to an all-mail election.

Her proposal requiring electronic tracking of ballots as they move between the county and the voters passed.

Logan, who announced his resignation last week, said he thinks all-mail voting is "doable in 2007."

"Seventy to 80 percent of voters already vote by mail. These are things the county is moving toward anyway," Logan said.

King County Executive Ron Sims' chief of staff Kurt Triplett said he was confident Sims could find a new director by the end of 2006.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com