Populating one foreign key based on entry of another foreign key in Access 2016
Just because [TownshipID] is populated (i.e. not null) and because there is a relationship defined between the two tables, these facts do not mean that the table [Townships] is open and positioned at any particular record.  You must specifically direct Access to open the table and look for the related record.  You do that in the Before Change Data Macro by using the LookupRecord action.

Look Up a Record In: [Townships]
  Where Condition: Townships.ID = Certificates.TownshipID


Within that action's group is where you place the SetField action.



Other comments:

Data Macros are best for validating data.  They also have their place in keeping tables in sync as you are doing, but these conditions should be rare, especially if your tables are properly normalized.

It appears that Certificates.TownshipID is optional and can be null.  I assume that means the county can be specified independently for the certificate when there is no township.  Correct?  If so, your technique is probably justified.  Otherwise, there would be no need to also store the county with the certificate since it could always be retrieved via the Township relationship.

Since you already have a form where Certificate data is entered, you could also place relevant code in the form's module, for example in the TownshipID_AfterUpdate() event handler (or similar method) to retrieve and update the county information.