Justice Colleen Melody held a commanding lead over challenger Scott Edwards, a Bainbridge Island tax attorney, statewide in early returns Tuesday night in the race for Position 1 on the Washington Supreme Court.
Statewide, Melody had 683,339 votes, or 62.0%, to Edwards’ 415,097, or 37.7%, according to the Washington Secretary of State.
Kitsap County voters also favored Melody, 60.5% to 39.2%, or 50,399 votes to 32,652, according to unofficial results posted by the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office at 8:13 p.m. Tuesday.
Countywide, 92,136 ballots had been counted, a turnout of 45.1% of Kitsap County’s 204,242 registered voters.
The Kitsap County Auditor’s Office will keep counting ballots in the coming days, including mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day, and results can change. The county is scheduled to certify the election Nov. 24.
The winner will serve a two-year unexpired term.
Melody, 44, of Vashon Island, was appointed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Nov. 24, 2025, to replace retiring Justice Mary Yu, and took office Jan. 1. She previously led the state attorney general’s civil rights division and worked in the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division. She is running for the remaining two years of Yu’s term.
Edwards, 60, of Bainbridge Island, is a longtime tax attorney at the firm Ballard Spahr who has brought court challenges to the state’s capital gains tax and Seattle’s payroll tax. He has said he is running to bring “the rule of law back to the court.” Melody is endorsed by the other justices and Democratic officials; Edwards is backed by the state Republican Party.
In the August primary, Melody received about 53% statewide to Edwards’ 29%. In Kitsap County, Melody received about 51% and Edwards about 34%. Washington Supreme Court races are nonpartisan.
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