The mother of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks died Saturday in Bremerton, the Belfair Democrat’s office announced.

Eileen Dicks, 87, died at Harrison Medical Center after a short illness. She was a graduate of Bremerton High School and an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star fraternal organization.

She is survived by two sons, Norm and Leslie, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her husband of 61 years, Horace Dicks, died earlier. Services are planned for Friday at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bremerton.

We've been telling you for months that Pierce County is a key battleground in the Chris Gregoire/Dino Rossi rematch for governor. To recap, Rossi won it by four percentage points in their historic 2004 campaign that was decided by 133 votes. In August, Gregoire edged Rossi by 0.09 percentage points in Pierce County in the "top two" primary: 72,388 to 72,258.

So it should be no surprise that both candidates are scheduled to pay a visit on Sunday.

Gregoire is making an appearance with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. The event will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the ILWU Hall, 1306 Alexander Ave. E, Fife.
(Maybe Dean will say this: "We're going to Roy and Eatonville and Graham and Orting! We're going to Gig Harbor and Purdy and Fircrest and Lakewood! And we're going to DuPont and Puy-, uh, Puy- ... I don't know how to pronounce that one. Anyway, YEEEEAAAAWWWWWW!")

Or not.

Rossi plans to visit a campaign phone bank in Puyallup at 3 p.m. The address is 11713 101st Ave.

An hour later, Rossi is scheduled to drop by a phone bank in Federal Way. That one is located at Kalchik Realty LLC,
2025 S.341st Place.

Rossi will be back on Monday with a 10 a.m. rally at the AmVets Hall, 5717 South Tyler, Tacoma.

Update: The Rossi campaign issued an updated schedule and said the event at the AmVets event starts at noon.

Through Friday, 38.4 percent of Pierce County residents who vote by mail had submitted their ballots. The raw numbers: 125,330 out of 326,078 ballots distributed, according to the county auditor's office.

That percentage lags the return in the last presidential election. In 2004, 43.9 percent (117,609 out of 267,373 ballots) had been submitted at this point.

Certainly, there are more close races on the ballot this time.

I presume a lot of folks will vote this weekend. We'll see just how many when the auditor's office updates the numbers at the end of the day on Monday.

If you're one of those folks, then consider checking out our elections page, which includes an archive of the election stories we've published in the past two months (broken down by state, county, local and national), as well as the "Truth O'Meter," which tests the truthfulness of statements made by the presidential campaigns.

It also has a link to the TNT voter guide, which features candidates answers to our questionnaires.

I wrote an article for today's paper that describes how the state's political parties are becoming more aggressive in their use of public records to ensure that every vote is counted, particularly when it comes to voters who cast ballots with a missing or mis-matched signature.

Katie Blinn, assistant elections director for the secretary of state's office, sent the following guidance to elections officials addressing that topic and a variety of others that are likely to come up.

Here's what the elections officials received:

Dear Election Staff,

I have met with both State Parties the past few weeks, and continue to receive lots of questions from them in anticipation of the General. I want to share with you some of what I shared with the Auditors at the WACO conference yesterday.

County Chairs:

I have encourage both State Parties to work through their respective County Chairs as much as possible. I explained to them that the local County Chairs have a better understanding of the procedures in each elections office because they are there every year, not just the Presidential/Gubernatorial elections. Hopefully, the County Chair has built a rapport with your office, and you have built a rapport with each County Chair. Communication will likely be more effective between people who know each other, rather than with “suits from Seattle.” I have also encouraged them to make litigation a last resort, rather than a first resort.

Public Records:

Both parties plan to be submitting many public records requests to our office and your offices. I know that some of these requests are already coming in.

Provisionally Registered Voters:

Both parties are asking many questions about voters who are provisionally registered because they did not clear the ID check during registration. Just a reminder that the applicable WACs are 434-324-045, 434-250-045, 434-253-024, and 434-261-055.

Felons:

I am receiving many questions about felons. In case you receive inquiries, the applicable laws are RCW 29A.08.520 and WAC 434-324-100 and 434-324-106.

Missing or Mismatched Signatures:

I am receiving many questions about how a voter may correct a missing or mismatched signature on the absentee/mail envelope. I fully expect both campaigns to be very geared up for this, contacting voters in counties favorable to their candidate. The applicable statute is RCW 29A.60.165, but please be aware that this statute is ambiguous regarding which signatures actually have to match, so it was clarified a few years ago in WAC 434-261-050.

Voter Registration Challenges:

I am receiving many questions about challenging a person’s voter registration. In case you receive inquiries, the applicable law is RCW 29A.08.810, 29A.08.820, 29A.08.835, and 29A.08.840, and WAC 434-324-115.

Thanks very much!

Katie Blinn

Assistant Director of Elections

Office of the Secretary of State

kblinn@secstate.wa.gov

(360) 902-4168

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