THE sun was shining, the polling stations were prepped, but it seemed many Hunter voters had no idea there was a local council election looming.
In Lake Macquarie, Liberal mayoral candidate Melody Harding spent the day meeting with constituents at Speers Point.
She said there was a real mix when it came to voters, between those who already had their minds made up and others who only found out about the local council election on the day.
"I think it's terrific that people get the opportunity to vote, that we live in a democracy," she said.
"I think we can all do a bit better in educating people around how the system actually works and we need to be a little bit more active in the space of letting people know these things don't just happen.
"It relies on the volunteers to man the booths, on people to make donations to their political parties and to become a little bit more actively involved, that would be a goal."
Ms Harding said she has sensed a "certain level of frustration" among voters who were not aware there was an election coming.
"There hasn't been a lot of material around about candidates in letterboxes and things like that," she said.
"I think in the Lake Macquarie area it is a challenge to cut through, to break through, because it is a Labor town."
Our Local Community Lake Macquarie mayoral candidate John Gilbert said people should treat voting for a councillor like a job interview.
Having spent most of Saturday at the polling booth at Wyee, Mr Gilbert said a lot of voters did have pointed questions about his policies.
"A lot of people are asking about what's going on with road repair, footpath repairs, what the current council is actually doing," he said.
He said about 35 per cent of voters were not sure why they were voting for a particular candidate.
"That to me just seems to be an unusual thing because a lot of people complain about councillors and lack of council performance, but I think that's maybe because some of the wrong people get in because there's a large percentage of others who aren't putting enough thought into it," he said.
"Have a look at their track record, have a look at their future plan, if they have just got a nice smile and and they just say a lot of generic cookie cutter stuff then they obviously don't have much going for them."
Things were reportedly "steady" at Wallsend Public School but volunteers said people were talking about being inconvenienced by having to vote.
Newcastle Independent lord mayoral candidate Ross Kerridge had a similar experience with some voters at Mayfield on Saturday, where many people were opting not to take how-to-vote information on their way into the polling centre.
"Some of them they've clearly made up their mind or have got it on their phone, but a solid I would say 15 per cent you get the impression don't want to be there and are turning up because they have to," he said.
In the Lower Hunter voters were noting a similar trend in the lead-up to the elections.
Living in the centre of Maitland, Aaron and Kerry Bellette said they knew about the election but could understand how those more isolated were unaware.
"There wasn't a lot of people out and about talking about it," Ms Bellette said.
