Letter to Editor | Why I changed my vote to Sean O’Donnell

||| FROM COLIN WILLIAMS |||

At a recent community lunch, the conversation turned, as it does this time of year, to the election. Doug McDonald mentioned that his nephew is Judge Sean O’Donnell, a candidate for Position 4 on the Washington State Supreme Court. I admitted I’d already marked Ian Birk on my ballot.

That evening I went home and I read deeper into their positions and asked myself why I’d chosen one candidate over the other. The answer changed my vote.

I come at this as a self-represented litigant who has spent time in King County Superior Court. When you stand in a courtroom without a lawyer, you learn quickly that the judge’s politics don’t matter. What matters is whether the judge listens, and whether the law is applied the same way to you as to everyone else. A parent’s access to their child should never depend on the judge(s) perception of that parent’s views. That principle is impartiality, and it’s what this race is
about.

Our own San Juan County Democrats endorsed Birk, while Whatcom County Democrats have endorsed both candidates. O’Donnell has also been recommended by Republican groups, and that support has been turned against him. He’s been pressed to disavow it and labeled a partisan in a flood of mailers. His response is the one I want from a judge: he won’t write off voters because of their politics. A judicial candidate with support from both sides of the aisle isn’t a partisan. That’s exactly what we should hope for.

His record backs that up. He has been a King County Superior Court judge since 2013, is a past president of the Superior Court Judges Association, and served as chief judge of the county’s Unified Family Court. He helped create King County’s protection order court and worked to make sure people who don’t speak English have interpreters.

More than 240 judges across Washington endorse him, including several I recognize from my own time in King County courtrooms.

There’s a local connection too: his campaign’s mailing address is a PO Box right here in Eastsound.

I hope Judge O’Donnell wins. I also hope that, as a justice, he’ll keep working to make our courts easier to navigate for people who look to represent themselves. The Supreme Court writes the rules every litigant must follow, and access to justice should not depend on your wealth or your political identity.

Ballots are due November 3.