Carl Kustell went to bed Tuesday night thinking he might have lost on his bid for a seat on the Barrington Town Council.

The early voting numbers displayed on the state's election website showed totals for the people who had turned out to the polls that day to cast their ballots. And those numbers had Independent candidate John Alessandro enjoying a comfortable lead, capturing more than 30 percent of that vote.

But as mail ballots and early voting ballots were added to the totals, the overall numbers shifted. Democrats Rob Humm, Annelise Conway and Mr. Kustell pushed ahead of Mr. Alessandro and eventually earned the three open council seats.

Mr. Humm finished atop the voting with 6,617 votes (29.9 percent), Ms. Conway was second with 6,157 votes (27.8 percent), Mr. Kustell was third with 4,716 votes (21.3 percent) and Mr. Alessandro was fourth with 4,441 votes (20 percent).

"I'm getting a ton of texts right now," Mr. Kustell said on Wednesday morning. "My kids are gratified that I won. My parents don't even know yet."

Mr. Humm said he stayed up late on Tuesday night to see the results. He said he has been receiving a steady flow of calls and texts from friends and others congratulating him. His wife, Kara, was also pleased with the outcome.

"She was very happy for me," Mr. Humm said.

He added that he was looking forward to working with Ms. Conway and Mr. Kustell, as well as current council members Michael Carroll and Jacob Brier.

"Everybody is respectful … I am certain everyone will work well together," he said.

Ms. Conway said she was very happy to earn a seat on the Barrington Town Council.

"I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve the Barrington community and represent all voices," she said. "At a time of extreme partisanship, local government is critical; taking the time to understand each other on a personal level will help to connect and repair us locally and nationally."

She added that she was very excited to begin her work on the council.

Mr. Alessandro said he anticipated that early voting and mail-in ballots might lean more heavily in favor of the Democrats who ran for the town council.

"Once I saw that over 2,000 ballots had been mailed in early … before we even had a debate, I knew that was bad for me," Mr. Alessandro said. "They (the voters) want diversity in the community, just not diversity of ideas."

Mr. Alessandro, a current member of the town's Committee on Appropriations and chairman of the Budget Forecast Committee, said that if he had been elected to the council he would have talked about issues that likely will not get discussed now.