It won’t be clear until at least Wednesday evening how New Canaan voted in the election, officials say, because the more than 5,000 absentee ballots cast by New Canaan voters must be cross-checked before they’re counted.
New Canaan voters lined up outside the polling place at New Canaan High School on Nov. 3, 2020. Credit: Michael Dinan
In all, New Canaan voters cast 5,256 absentee ballots for the election, according to Town Clerk Claudia Weber—about 40% of all ballots cast and nearly four times the absentee ballot total from 2016.
Those ballots must be cross-checked with the ballots cast in-person Tuesday in order to ensure that no one voted both ways, Weber said. Once that’s done, the absentee ballots will be counted—a process that likely will run into late afternoon or early evening Wednesday, she said. (It’s unclear just when other municipalities will count ballots for the state races, as each state legislator representing New Canaan also represents others towns.)
Overall turnout from New Canaan voters this year finished at about 81.5% of eligible electors—nearly two points higher than 2016, itself an historically high turnout.
Voters queued up outside Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School in the dark, well before polls opened at 6 a.m. on Nov. 3, wearing masks and social distancing.
They voted for up-ballot races including president and U.S. representative— Democrat Jim Himes, the incumbent representative of the 4th Congressional District, faced challenges from Republican Jonathan Riddle and Independent Brian Merlen.
On the state level, incumbent state Sen. Will Haskell (D-26th) faced a challenge from Republican Kim Healy; state Sen. Alex Kasser (D-36th) faced Republican Ryan Fazio; state Rep. Lucy Dathan (D-142nd) faced former state representative Fred Wilms, a Republican; and town resident and state Rep. Tom O’Dea (R-125th) ran unopposed for re-election.
Here’s how New Canaan voted with in-person voting alone in contested races, these are preliminary figures:
In-Person New Canaan Voting: Election Day 2020
| Office | Candidate & Party | New Canaan tally* |
|---|---|---|
| State House 142nd | Lucy Dathan, Democrat | 443 |
| Fred Wilms, Republican | 752 | |
| State Senate 26th | Will Haskell, Democrat | 1,261 |
| Kim Healy, Republican | 2,094 | |
| State Senate 36th | Ryan Fazio, Republican | 2,460 |
| Alex Kasser, Democrat | 1,315 | |
| 4th Congressional | Jim Himes, Democrat | 2,998 |
| Brian Merlen, Independent | 59 | |
| Jonathan Riddle, Republican | 4,073 | |
| U.S. President | Joe Biden, Democrat | 3,480 |
| Donald Trump, Republican | 3,532 |
*preliminary in-person voting figures only, does not include absentees or Election Day registrations