Election day cuisine comes in many forms; from the humble snag, lovingly barbecued a little more on one side than the other, to the expressionist arrowroot biscuits with musk stick noses and Snakes Alive lips vaguely reminiscent of an edible Easter Island head - it was the pleasantly surprising splash of colour on an what was otherwise grey and rainy day at the polls in the Hunter this weekend.
One in five voters had already cast their ballot in the 2023 NSW election well before the New York-style baked cheesecake on offer at the Junction Public School in Newcastle ever made it to the oven, but the polling places across the city were nonetheless buzzing Saturday morning as residents turned out to have their say on the state of politics in NSW.
Students and community groups made a steady trade on democracy-eats in school yards across the suburbs as heavy cloud cover hung overhead.
Troughs hung over the north coast and northern inland with Saturday bringing showers to much of the east coast before the chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon.
While the contest appears mostly moot in the historically very safe Labor region, the Hunter nevertheless goes to the polls this weekend with the potential to shape the balance of power in NSW.
The region accounts for nine of the state's 93 electorates, though the only real contest will be in the seat of Upper Hunter where yesterday, the Newcastle Herald reported one independent candidate's decision to preference Labor could tip the election scales.
A win for Chris Minn's Labor party would result in wall-to-wall Labor state leadership on the Australian mainland, as the party promises to establish a manufacturing centre of excellence at a Hunter TAFE campus as well as address Stockton's catastrophic sand erosion crisis, among other key issues.
Incumbent Premier Dominic Perrottet has based his coalition party's pitch on economic management with commitments focused in the Upper Hunter, where Nationals MP candidate Dave Layzell hopes to hold off Labor rival Peree Watson.
Mr Perrottet is seeking a fourth consecutive four-year term for his Liberal-National coalition, while Labor leader Chris Minns is hoping to return his party to government after 12 years on the opposition benches.
Labor is the strong favourite to win the election, leading the polls and overwhelmingly ahead in betting agency odds.
The Newcastle Herald's political reporting team will be reporting on the results of the NSW election as counting begins around 6.30pm Saturday evening. Vote counting will stop at 10.30pm and not resume again until Monday.
