Political forums in Port Angeles, Forks and Sequim will give voters a chance to learn about issues in the Nov. 2 general election as well as meet candidates and ask questions.
Ballots will be mailed to all registered voters on Wednesday.
Elections in Clallam County are mail-only.
Ballots must be deposited in a voter dropbox at the Clallam County courthouse, Sequim Motor Vehicles Licensing Office or Forks District Court by 8 p.m. Nov. 2, or postmarked on or before that date.
The Peninsula Daily News will publish a comprehensive voter’s guide this coming Sunday, Oct. 17.
It will cover all the candidates and issues in Clallam County — plus information on all the state races and the initiatives.
Monday, Oct. 18, is the last day a resident can register at the county Auditor’s Office to vote in the general election.
These political forums — open to any member of the public — are upcoming:
Forks
Tuesday: 7 p.m., Forks High School commons, 261 S. Spartan Ave.
Candidates will debate each other on the issues and take questions from the audience.
Sponsors and opponents of Initiative 892 (licensed gambling; see below, under Sequim); I-872 (primary election return to “top 2”), I-884 (1 percent sales tax increase for education), I-297 (storing nuclear waste at Hanford) and Referendum 55 (enact a charter schools program in the state) will argue their cases, then answer questions from the audience.
Candidates appearing will be:
* Incumbent state Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, and his Democratic opponent, Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim.
Buck is seeking his sixth two-year term in the state House as one of the two representatives for the 24th District (Clallam and Jefferson counties and most of Grays Harbor County).
The district’s other representative, Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, is running unopposed in the Nov. 2 election.
Van De Wege, a Democrat and political newcomer, is a firefighter and paramedic with Clallam County Fire District No. 3.
* Joe Martin and Soeren Poulsen, running for Clallam County sheriff.
Poulsen, 60, of Sequim, is a computer-crime expert and retired Long Beach, Calif., police sergeant. He ran unsuccessfully against former Sheriff Joe Hawe in 2002.
Martin, 70, also of Sequim, is a former Neah Bay police chief who was a county undersheriff for 13 years before being appointed to the post of sheriff last fall following Hawe’s unexpected resignation.
County commissioners selected Martin over Poulsen and a third finalist to succeed Hawe, who took a new job in Olympia one year into his fourth term.
The winner of the Nov. 2 general election will serve as sheriff for two years, finishing out Hawe’s four-year term.
Republican congressional candidate Doug Cloud of Gig Harbor, running against U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, has said he will also attend the forum.
Cloud is an attorney in Tacoma.
The forum will be conducted by the Forks Chamber of Commerce. It is sponsored by CenturyTel.
Tuesday’s forum will be recorded and rebroadcast on “West End Action Line” on Saturday at 10 a.m. on radio KVAC-AM 1490 and KLLM-FM 103.9.
Sequim
Thursday: 2 p.m., Guy Cole Convention Center, Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Avenue, Sequim.
Buck and Van De Wege and Martin and Poulsen (see candidate profiles above) will debate each other on the issues and take questions from the audience.
In addition, the pros and cons of Initiative 892, a highly controversial measure appearing on the state ballot, will be debated at this forum.
Sponsored by Tim Eyman, I-892 would authorize licensed gambling establishments (charities, restaurants, taverns, bowling alleys, horse racing facilities and card rooms) to operate the same type and number of gambling machines as tribal governments, with tax proceeds earmarked for lowering the state property tax.
Proponents and opponents of I-892 will present their arguments, followed by questions from the audience.
Thursday’s forum is sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Clallam County with the American Association of University Women and Peninsula Daily News.
Port Angeles
* Monday, Oct. 18: 7 p.m., City Council chambers, Port Angeles City Hall, 321 E. 5th St.
This League of Women of Voters forum will follow the same format as the previous week’s forum in Sequim (above) — with Buck and Van De Wege, Poulsen and Martin, and the pros and cons of Initiative 892.
* Tuesday, Oct. 19: Two hour-long “meet the press” forums by the Peninsula Daily News and Peninsula News Network (Wave cable TV channel 3), Room 160 at the county courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The public is invited to attend, but the only PDN and PNN journalists will question the candidates. The schedule:
7 p.m.: Martin and Poulsen.
8 p.m.: Buck and Van De Wege.
* Thursday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m.: “Meet the press” forum by the PDN and Peninsula News Network on the congressional race between Dicks and Cloud.
This will be the only scheduled appearance together of the congressman and his opponent in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
It will be in the same location as Tuesday’s session — Room 160 at the county courthouse.
Tuesday’s and Thursday’s forums will be broadcast later by PNN on channel 3.
