Kellie Crossley is expected to be elected to Edward River Council with the highest number of votes, with an early lead from Saturday still secure when counting continued yesterday.

At the time of going to print yesterday, Mrs Crossley held 20 per cent of the votes.

With 4,858 of a possible 6,428 votes counted, Mrs Crossley had gained the support of 949 constituents.

While she has no experience as a councillor, Mrs Crossley has worked in governance roles and is well known in the community for her other professional and volunteer roles.

She is probably most well known for helping to set up the Deniliquin Can Assist branch, and being its chair since formation.

Mrs Crossley is also well established in the agriculture sector, farming with husband Andrew.

Second to Mrs Crossley as counting continued yesterday was Ashley Hall, who will bring his extensive local government experience to the fresh-look council.

Mr Hall served on the Deniliquin Council before its merger with Conargo to form Edward River.

He was mayor of Deniliquin when the merger took effect in 2016, and was then appointed administrator to see the council through the transition period and to the election of councillors.

With the third highest number of votes yesterday was Craig Druitt on 698.

The election’s youngest candidate, Frank Schofield, was next on 597.

All four polled above the progressive quota, which at 1pm yesterday was 465 voted.

Sitting just outside this in the fifth position was Leanne Mulham, with 427.

If the voting progresses in a similar fashion when the remainder of the votes are counted, it looks almost certain the three sitting councillors will be returned to the chambers.

Shirlee Burge had 356 votes at the time of going to print yesterday, placing her sixth in the tally.

Linda Fawns and Shannon Sampson were placed eight and nine yesterday, with 144 and 119 votes respectively.

But with David ‘Baron’ Schoeffel only six votes behind Sampson it’s unclear whether Mr Sampson will secure his seat.

In position seven yesterday was Ken Bates with 234 votes.

With almost 2000 votes left to count, the bottom order of the tally may change before the council make-up is declared.

And below the top nine to date, the votes are quite close for some.

Richard McDaid had 105.

If he gets a run of votes at the tail end he could quite easily leapfrog Mr Schoeffel, or even Mr Sampson.

A little further down the list so far are Airlie Circuitt on 72 votes, Donna McFeeters and Collin Sander equal on 51, former Deniliquin councillor Jeff Shand on 31.

Greg Briscoe-Hough will be the first eliminated from the race, with only 13 votes at the time of going to print yesterday.

To date only first preference votes have been counted, after which the NSW Electoral Commission will continue with preferences until they have nine candidates meet quote.

The final quota will be set once all first preference votes have been recorded.

With postal votes not closing until September 27, this distribution of preferences is not expected to start until September 30.

The NSW Electoral Commission anticipates the election to be officially declared on October 3.

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Wednesday, 17th July 2024

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