Postponement of all-mail election urged

King County should put off a move to all-mail elections until 2009, County Councilmember Larry Phillips said Friday, citing delays in obtaining high-volume tabulation equipment.

Phillips, D-Seattle, wrote in a letter to County Executive Ron Sims that it would be "logistically difficult" to conduct the November presidential election by mail. "Where accuracy of elections is concerned, we cannot afford to make any mistakes," he wrote.

A supporter of vote-by-mail elections, Phillips said in an interview he was disappointed to conclude that the federal government was unlikely to certify the new equipment in time and that the county's existing equipment is inadequate to count up to 900,000 mail ballots.

Sims reported to the County Council on Monday that the county's 10-year-old tabulating machines and computer database aren't up to the job of counting nearly all ballots in a central location.

"I just think that we need to send a message to the public that, hey, we have a reformed election system that can tabulate votes accurately with a high level of trust. Let's use the tried-and-true system. I say that with great regret," Phillips said.

Sims' office said Phillips was jumping the gun. "It doesn't make sense," Sims spokeswoman Carolyn Duncan said of his request for delay. "We expect certification of our equipment. We're on track for that. It's premature to call for that action."

King County Elections officials say the high-speed tabulators and larger computer database marketed by Premier Election Solutions must be certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) by Feb. 1 if the county is to use them in the August primary and November general election.

Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said her office still expects the devices to be certified in time to use them this year. But the EAC hasn't yet approved an independent lab's plan for testing the Premier equipment, won't say publicly when it might be certified and hasn't certified any manufacturer's equipment since the agency assumed certification duties at the beginning of 2007.

The County Council earlier said it preferred to conduct the presidential election using existing equipment, but Phillips said this week's report made "a compelling argument" that would be too risky.

Ellen Hansen, chairwoman of the Citizens' Elections Oversight Committee, agreed with Phillips that Sims "has made a good case for not going ahead with the existing equipment if the new equipment isn't certified." But she said she didn't think the county should pull the plug on vote-by-mail elections this year unless it becomes certain that the Premier equipment won't receive federal certification in the next four weeks.

Premier was formerly known as Diebold Election Systems.

The County Council voted in 2006 to switch to all-mail voting in 2007 or 2008, but only after an election superintendent is hired, the elections office completes a "culture change" and management-training program, and the council adopts a plan for ballot drop boxes and regional voting centers. The superintendent position is vacant, and a recruitment process is under way.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com