Historic WA Supreme Court election results

Welcome back to Good Day Seattle. It is 7-16 right now and with more than half of the bench on the ballot this morning, we are monitoring a major shakeup in the state Supreme Court. Initial returns show Democrat-backed candidates are taking the lead except for one true nail-biter and that is position four. Fox 13's Taylor Winkle live from the King County election headquarters with the latest for us. Taylor, good morning. Yeah, good morning, Bill. So with every ballot drop that happens in the building behind us here, we are watching to see what happens with that Supreme Court position four race. Republican backed King County Superior Court Judge Sean O'Donnell holding a razor thin lead of just two percentage points over appeals court judge Ian Burke. And at last check, O'Donnell is leading with 50% of the vote Burke at 48. And it's rare to see five of the state Supreme Court's nine seats open. At the same time, usually it is just two or three, but this election was the making of mandatory age requirements and early departures, turning what are usually quiet nonpartisan races into some multi-million dollar showdowns. Judges aren't allowed to run as Democrat or Republican, but with so much power on the line this race, it garnered a lot of attention by both political parties, business groups, and labor unions. And when the first wave of ballot It's dropped last night. Candidates supported by Democrats held decisive leads in the other four races. Position one incumbent, Colleen Melody, has 60% of her vote. Position three, Jamie Michelle Hawk, she is leading with nearly 58. Position five incumbent, Theo Angeles, leading with 55. And position seven incumbent, Deborah Stevens, in the lead with nearly 64%. This incoming court attracted so much attention Because pivotal decisions for the state are going to fall to them. And that could also mean they are the deciding factor in Washington's millionaire's tax. Of course, they saw thousands of more ballots left to count. We are expecting an update on those numbers later on this afternoon. For now reporting live in Renton, I'm Taylor Winkle Fox 13 News.