This bill amends RCW 29A.84.510 to create new restrictions on electioneering during a defined "voting period" (beginning 18 days before and ending the day of a special election, general election, or primary). It prohibits, inside a voting center or student engagement hub, in the building that contains a county auditor's division of elections (including adjacent county-owned parking lots and access routes), in any public street or room within 100 feet of a voting center entrance, or within 25 feet of a ballot drop box: suggesting or attempting to persuade any voter to vote for or against a candidate or measure, circulating handbills, soliciting petition signatures, and any practices that interfere with voters or disrupt voting administration. It also bars use of electronic amplification located beyond those distances if the amplified speech can be understood within them, and prohibits obstructing doors or access to voting locations. The bill requires county auditors to post notice signs at specified points during the voting period, authorizes sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and municipal law enforcement officers to stop prohibited activity and make arrests, and classifies violations as a gross misdemeanor punishable under RCW 9A.20.021, with the court able to order payment of prosecution costs. It expressly preserves access for authorized political party observers to observe the election process and includes legislative findings about polling-place buffer zones. The amendment cites RCW 29A.40.170 and RCW 29A.40.160 for ballot drop box description and sign locations and ties penalties to RCW 9A.20.021. The extracted text does not include the cited RCWs' language, the specific penalty details in RCW 9A.20.021, an assigned RCW number for the new section, an effective date, or other enactment details.

If enacted, the bill would make campaigning, handing out literature, soliciting petition signatures, using loud amplified speech that can be heard near entrances, blocking doors or otherwise interfering with voters illegal at voting centers, student engagement hubs, ballot drop boxes, and in county election office parking lots and access routes during the voting period (which starts 18 days before and ends the day of an election). County auditors must post notice signs at those locations, law enforcement can stop and arrest people who violate the rules, and violations would be treated as a gross misdemeanor; political party observers would still be allowed to observe voting. The groups most affected are county auditors, who will have a new sign-posting duty and minor administrative costs; sheriffs and municipal police, who may need to respond to and enforce more complaints during the voting period; advocacy groups and campaigns, which will lose the option to engage voters within the newly defined buffer zones and face criminal risk if they do; and voters, who would likely see fewer disruptions and less direct persuasion at polling sites. Important details are missing here: the exact locations where signs must go and the technical definition of ballot drop boxes are set in other statutes not provided, and the specific fine or jail terms tied to the gross misdemeanor reference are not included.