In WA, Voters Keep a Controversial County Sheriff in the Saddle - Washington State Standard

Voters in Pierce County rejected a measure to make their sheriff an appointed position, choosing instead to keep the office in the hands of elected officials.

The decision on Charter Amendment 53 leaves Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank in office to complete his four-year term, according to the Washington State Standard.

Instead, 68% of voters rejected the change as of Friday, preserving the current electoral system. “I am very pleased with the result,” Swank told the Washington State Standard. “It means the people of Pierce County want to continue to exercise their right to vote for sheriff.”

Voters in the county also turned down Charter Amendment 54, which would have established an independent oversight board for the sheriff’s department. Swank noted he opposed that measure and would not have cooperated with it.

Across the state, other charter amendments faced starkly different fates. In Snohomish County, 70% of voters opposed Proposition 3, an attempt to make the offices of county executive and county council nonpartisan.

Jennifer Gregerson, a Democratic activist and former mayor of Mukilteo who opposed the amendment, told the Washington State Standard that keeping partisan labels helps inform voters about candidate beliefs. “I am just glad to see the voters in the county recognize that and they don’t want candidates to hide their beliefs,” she added.

Meanwhile, voters in Everett approved Proposition 1 to ban elected city officials from simultaneously holding another public office. Randy Bolerjack, a member of the city charter review panel who backed the measure, told the Washington State Standard that politicians should hold the trust of only one position at a time.

In southwest Washington, 82% of voters approved Charter Amendment 19 to limit Clark County council members to three terms in office. The policy aims to balance accumulated experience with periodic turnover, according to the Washington State Standard, which noted that the inclusion of a one-term break preserves the ability of experienced individuals to return to service while preventing uninterrupted long-term incumbency.

A sign along Highway 197 warns drivers in Klickitat County, Washington that anyone selling or using drugs in the county will — Photo: spokanepublicradio.org

Further south in Klickitat County, outgoing Sheriff Bob Songer has spent his tenure defending the constitutional sheriff movement, as reported by Spokane Public Radio in a collaboration with InvestigateWest and Bolts.

If the sheriff is not toeing the governor’s mandates … then they remove the sheriff, Songer stated in the office where he was photographed on July 5, 2023, by Isaac Stone Simonelli of the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

With Songer retiring, his preferred successor, Detective Sgt. Tony Warren, received 27 percent of the vote in the August primary, trailing former deputy Dwayne Matulovich, who secured 57 percent, according to Spokane Public Radio.