The newest version was supposed to support BIP32, which would create compressed addresses for new wallets, but I can find no changelog docs supporting this:
electum 1.9 (the upcoming release) will use BIP32, and therefore compressed keys
I use Bitcoin-qt. It can send with the exact minimum fee required and does not let you send with less. Fees are calculated the way that relay nodes and miners calculate what is required, because they also run bitcoin.
BIP32 support was delayed to 2.0 release.