Tamworth council elections: Results trickle in for Tamworth Regional Council local government elections

Former Nationals chairman and prominent chicken farmer Bede Burke and youth leader and Gomeroi man Marc Sutherland both have over a quota of first preference votes.

Just one-third of votes have been counted, but if votes hold steady, both new candidates would be elected.

Slightly less than one vote in ten cast in Tamworth's local government elections will not count, with an enormous and record-breaking 9.4 per cent of the vote cast informally.

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The Labor ticket has also won well-and-truly enough votes to elect at least one councillor, assuming preferences stay within the Labor ticket.

The most likely looks to be union organiser Stephen Mears, with 753 counted votes so far.

A number of incumbent candidates are not recontesting this election, including former Mayor Col Murray.

But several incumbents are in danger of losing their seats on council, including Charles Impy, Jim Maxwell, Helen Tickle and Phil Betts.

The only incumbents who will hold their seats without preferences at current count are Mark Rodda, who is currently at the top of the poll, and Russell Webb.

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A huge number of Tamworth voters have voted informally, with nearly one-in-ten votes cast not counting to the outcome.

With a rate of informal voting of 9.4 per cent, the pile of uncounted votes is even higher than 2016, when 7.70 per cent of votes were informal.

In 2012, 5.5 per cent of votes did not count.

In 2008, 6.5 per cent of votes were cast informally.

Anecdotal evidence suggests many voters may have been confused by the Labor grouped ticket - though in 2017, the Liberal party ran a group ticket as well.

Some 35.1 per cent of the vote has been counted so far.

Tamworth Regional Council contains 44,550 electors.

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