It may be unclear right now exactly which candidates will make it to the presidential ballot in November, but one thing is certain: Voters in King County will still be able to mark their choices the old-fashioned way, at polling places in their neighborhoods.
Elections officials announced Wednesday that they are pulling the plug on plans to switch to all-mail voting this year. The reason: The federal government has yet to certify the new, high-speed tabulation equipment officials say they need to handle the surge in centrally counted ballots that all-mail voting would bring, and there isn't enough time left to install and test the hardware and software before the fall vote.
"Our deadline has passed," county elections director Sherril Huff said. "We don't have any more contingency time built into the schedule for implementation this year."
King County thus will remain with Pierce County alone in the state in continuing with a dual system of voting at polling places and by mail. The other 37 counties have switched to full-mail voting, and King County now expects to join them in 2009.
The King County elections agency was hoping the equipment would receive its required federal certification by the beginning of this month -- which, officials said, would allow them to test the new hardware and software and notify voters in time for a limited special election in May and then convert to all-mail voting in the August primary. They have said they would not move to all-mail voting in a major, countywide election without first conducting a smaller election using the new equipment.
But the certification process, which at one time was expected to conclude last October, was delayed when the equipment manufacturer upgraded security features in response to concerns by elections agencies in other states.
The announcement of the delay is the latest wrinkle in the sometimes testy relationship between the County Council and the elections agency, which is part of the administration of County Executive Ron Sims.
"It is very disappointing that we're not going to be able to do vote by mail this year," Councilman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, said Wednesday. "But under the circumstances, it's the right call."
The council voted in 2006 to switch to all-mail balloting after the move was recommended in two reviews of the problem-plagued 2004 election. Sims also supported the change.
Phillips said it was irritating that the county couldn't pull off the switch to vote by mail in time for this year's presidential election, considering the council called for the change two years ago.
In the 2004 election, accounts of voters voting could not be reconciled with records of ballots cast, more than 100 ballots were overlooked until it was too late to count them and hundreds of provisional ballots were tabulated without the required validation of voter eligibility.
Supporters of all-mail voting say it simplifies and streamlines administration of elections, reducing the chance for errors. Opponents say that it's more susceptible to fraud.
Most voters in King County already vote by mail.