King County Elections is postponing all-mail voting until 2009 because the equipment needed has not yet received required federal certification.

Other components for all-mail elections will be phased-in this year.

The vote counting equipment King County plans to purchase will handle an additional 300,000 mail ballots in an all-mail election. The equipment will have enhanced security features such as fingerprint identification log-in, data encryption, and automation, reducing the likelihood of human operator errors.

Time built into planning for fall 2008 vote-by-mail elections has expired and there is not enough time for the necessary testing, training and security review.

"The Elections Division, council and the executive have all worked tirelessly to achieve vote by mail in 2008, but the prolonged federal certification process has exhausted all contingency time," said County Executive Ron Sims. "Moving forward with vote by mail in 2008, would jeopardize our ability to do a thorough security review of the equipment. We are making this decision with the best interests of voters at heart."