A full six days before the election many of Washington’s counties are reporting healthy collections of absentee votes already cast– nearly one-third of the total in most places. As of last night King County had received nearly 29 percent of its absentee ballots. Pierce County, which in addition to King is the only other place in the state where you can also still vote at the polls, has 24 percent of its absentee ballots in. Gov. Chris Gregoire, for one, better hope they keep coming and coming early. She’s going to need to win big in King and do well in Pierce County to beat Dino Rossi– and turnout is going to critical. Even mail-in voters in King and Pierce counties have until 8 p.m. Election Day to drop off their ballots. And if Obama starts racking up critical wins in places that are two and three hours ahead of us next Tuesday, it’s much safer for Gregoire to have those votes already cast then to count on people to still come out.