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 to handle an additional 300,000 mail ballots in an all-mail election has enhanced security features such as fingerprint identification log-in; data encryption and automation that will reduce the likelihood of human operator errors.

Contingency 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.