This bill creates a new section in chapter 36.28 RCW and amends RCW 29A.56.180. It is a procedural and authority-limiting law: it preserves the office and general authority of an elected sheriff who is not a certified peace officer under chapter 43.101 RCW but bars that sheriff from personally performing law enforcement actions that are legally reserved to certified peace officers. It designates the Criminal Justice Training Commission as the initiating party for recall proceedings when a sheriff’s certification is finally revoked under specified subsections of RCW 43.101.105 for conduct occurring after the sheriff’s term began, and it names the act the “sheriffs accountability to the voters act.” The bill changes recall procedures and signature requirements. It provides that a final revocation order under RCW 43.101.105(2) can itself initiate recall proceedings and, if a superior court finds the charges sufficient and corrects any inadequate ballot synopsis, no signature circulation, collection, or canvassing is required and the official with whom the petition is filed must set a special recall election date under RCW 29A.56.210. It also amends RCW 29A.56.180 to set specific signature thresholds for various offices (25% for certain state and large-city or county offices; 35% for other local officers and state legislators) and to state explicitly that no signatures are required for an elected sheriff decertified under RCW 43.101.105(2) for conduct after the term began. Important statutory text is not included here: the contents of RCW 43.101.105(2) and (3), the full text of the recall provisions in RCW 29A.56.110 and RCW 29A.56.210, and the identity or office referred to by “the officer with whom the petition is filed” are not provided in the extracted facts. The bill was prefiled on 01/09/26 and read for the first time on 01/12/26.

If enacted, the law would stop an elected sheriff who is not a state-certified peace officer from personally carrying out law enforcement actions that only certified officers may do; those sheriffs would still hold the office but would have to delegate or limit their direct policing duties. It also creates a fast track to voter recall when the Criminal Justice Training Commission revokes a sheriff’s certification for conduct after they took office: the commission’s final revocation order would be treated as starting recall proceedings, and for certain revocations the recall could proceed to a special election without any petition signatures and with an official required to set the election date. The people most affected are elected sheriffs (who face tighter limits on what they can do day-to-day and a higher risk of an expedited recall), the Criminal Justice Training Commission (which effectively becomes the formal initiator of recalls in these cases), superior courts (asked to review charges and correct ballot language), and local election officials (who would need to schedule and run any special recall elections, with the attendant administrative and cost impacts). The bill leaves unclear which specific conduct triggers the different types of revocation under RCW 43.101.105(2) and (3) and which official exactly must set the special election date, so some implementation details and timing remain uncertain.