A new state law aims to erase any confusion about Washington’s ban on voting more than once in an election.

Its approval follows a court decision that officials warned could incite voter fraud.

Longstanding Washington law makes it illegal for a person to cast more than one ballot in any election in the state, or to vote in any election in this state and another state during the same period.

But a state appeals court in January overturned the felony conviction of a Lewis County resident found guilty of voting twice in November 2022 — once in Washington and once in Oregon. The court concluded that because the candidates and measures differed on the two ballots, one could interpret them as different elections under Washington law.

“This fixes an ambiguity in state law,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said Tuesday before signing Senate Bill 6084. It contains an emergency clause and took effect immediately.

“Voting more than once in an election is an affront to everyone who participates in our democracy,” Ferguson later wrote on X. “This bill makes it clear that double voting is illegal.”

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Adrian Cortes, D-Battle Ground, adds language to existing law to spell out that “election” refers to any general, primary, or special election.

“An election is the ‘same election’ if the election date is the same, regardless of the candidates, offices, issues, or measures on the ballot and regardless of the date on which ballots are mailed or returned,” reads the bill.

Secretary of State Steve Hobbs asked lawmakers to act swiftly, worried the court ruling opened the door to the potential of voters casting more than one ballot in November.

“This legislation helps to ensure that Washington’s elections remain secure, accurate and fair,” Hobbs said in a statement.

In Washington, voting more than once in an election is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Meanwhile, Lewis County is appealing the January decision to the Washington Supreme Court.

This story was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

The murder trial of a man accused of killing a teacher on the campus of Catholic University in 2023 was supposed to start Wednesday. But that case has been thrown into turmoil after defense attorneys say the lead D.C. police detective was removed from the case and charged with misconduct.

New court documents reveal the detective is accused of having sex on the job and recording it on a police-issued cellphone.

In a hearing one of the supervisors admitted was highly unusual, the judge and the defense attorneys wanted to know why the U.S. Attorney’s office did not disclose until last week that the lead detective in the murder of 25-year old Maxwell Emerson was removed from the case just weeks after an arrest was made and placed under investigation for alleged misconduct.

In a motion filed Tuesday, the defense said, in part “The government withheld evidence that its lead detective, Detective Thomas Roy, had engaged in conduct so concerning that the Metropolitan Police Department proposed his termination, removed him as a lead detective, transferred him out of the homicide section and instituted a last chance agreement”.

The defense attorneys wrote in their motion that Roy neglected his duties in Aug. 2022 “when he engaged in sexual intercourse with another homicide detective in his unit at her home while on duty and recorded two videos of their sexual encounter on an MPD issued cell phone.”

According to the motion filed by the defense, the detective was not placed under investigation until after Jaime Macedo was charged with the murder that occurred on catholic university campus back in July 2023.

News4 reported extensively on the case at the time. Police say Macedo is accused of following Emerson from the Brookland metro station on the morning of July 5. Surveillance video released by police show Emerson at one point walking with his hands raised in the air before the two ended up in a park near Alumni Lane.

Police say the two got into a struggle before Macedo is accused of shooting Emerson one time in the abdomen.

Emerson was a Kentucky teacher visiting D.C. for a conference at the Library of Congress Teacher Institute.

In the motion filed by the defense, in which they argue the indictment should be dismissed, the attorneys cite an internal affairs document that says, “Detective Roy’s misconduct had cast a shadow over his credibility and reputation as a law enforcement officer.”

It’s unclear when this case may go to trial. The judge still must rule on the motion by the defense.
D.C. police say Roy was disciplined and lost his job in homicide but is still employed as a detective.

Air traffic controllers will use radar, not just visual checks, to ensure that helicopters maintain a safe distance from arriving and departing airplanes in the wake of last year’s fatal midair collision near Washington, D.C., federal officials announced Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said recent near-misses show that previous guidelines for pilots to maintain visual separation between helicopters and airplanes have failed to provide adequate protection around busy airports.

Under the new guidelines, air traffic controllers must use radar to keep helicopters and airplanes apart by specific lateral or vertical distances. The new requirement applies to more than 150 of the nation’s busiest airports, extending a restriction already put in place at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“Today, we are proactively mitigating risks before they affect the traveling public,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a news release. “Following the mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), we looked at similar operations across the national airspace. We identified an overreliance on pilot ‘see and avoid’ operations that contribute to safety events involving helicopters and airplanes.”

Officials also specifically mentioned a Feb. 27 near-miss in which a police helicopter had to turn to avoid an American Airlines flight that was landing at San Antonio International Airport in Texas. A similar close call happened on March 2, when a helicopter had to turn away from a small aircraft that had been cleared to arrive at California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport, officials said.

The January 2025 collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter killed 67 people, making it the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001. Among other factors contributing to the crash, investigators said controllers in the Reagan tower overly relied on asking pilots to spot aircraft and maintain visual separation.

The night of the crash, the controller approved the Black Hawk’s request to do that twice. However, investigators say the helicopter pilots likely never spotted the American Airlines plane as the jet circled to land on the little-used secondary runway.

Many of the people who died were young figure skaters and their parents and coaches who had just attended a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships were held there.