In several key states this week — including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia — early leads held by President Donald Trump on Election Night slowly evaporated, as more Democratic-leaning ballots from absentee voters and urban areas were added to the tally.
In Canby, a similar trend occurred this week — but in the opposite direction — as early returns from the city’s three precincts showed Democrat Joe Biden with a slim lead over the incumbent, a lead that had vanished decisively by the end of the week.
In the latest returns Friday afternoon, Trump led the former vice president in Canby, 5,153 votes (51.01%) to 4,517 (44.72%). The lead — which could still change, with an estimated 250-300 Canby ballots still to be counted — is only slightly smaller than the 734-vote margin by which the president won this city four years ago.
Similarly, what had looked like a narrow win in the more Republican-leaning Canby School District Tuesday night had, by Friday, turned into a good, old-fashioned shellacking, with the Trump-Pence ticket beating Biden-Harris 11,392 (54.72%) to 8,560 (41.11%).
Countywide, Biden’s lead held, as expected, but it, too, tightened significantly, from 23 points in the early returns to slightly more than 11, with 54.2% of Clackamas County votes to Trump’s 42.97%.
The shifts were entirely in line with trends that were observed in other local races, in which a larger number of votes for conservative candidates tended to have been mailed or dropped off closer to Election Day, and thus, be counted later.
The influx caused the flip of a Clackamas County commissioner race in which the incumbent had led by almost 10 points Tuesday night, and also greatly shifted the hotly contested Canby City Council race throughout the week.
Although the presidential tally in Canby, Oregon, means very little to the state and national race, the political leanings of the town are important to many who live here.
The Current‘s Facebook post of our earlier story drew more than 1,700 engagements, most of them lamenting — or celebrating — the apparent shift of Canby’s electorate.
Wikimedia Commons photo by Gage Skidmore is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
