The race for Maitland mayor has tilted towards a challenger, but preferences could potentially see the incumbent come through with an eleventh hour victory.
Labor incumbent Loretta Baker trails Independent rival Philip Penfold in the initial first preference count by about 1550 votes, but could be aided by preferences with four candidates directing their supporters to put a number next to her name. Preferences will be distributed from December 20.
However preferences are harder to read than usual due to volunteers not being able to hand out how to vote cards within 100 metres of booths due to COVID. Ms Baker said she instead mailed how to vote cards to every household in the city.
Mr Penfold said he expected to win the first preference vote, and believed he had "a relatively good chance of success" in the final result.
Ms Baker said she did not want to comment while the result was still unclear.
The current standing is almost a reverse of the first preference result from 2017, which Ms Baker won by 1514 votes. She eventually succeeded by almost 3500 votes after preferences.
Mr Penfold said the lack of handouts at booths had played a part this time. His team managed to hand out materials at some locations where they were more than 100 metres away - namely two of the city's biggest booths, Thornton Public School and Rutherford High - while Labor didn't.
Mr Penfold said he even had an election official come out and measure the distance to make sure he was abiding by the 100 metre rule after complaints by his rivals.
Mr Penfold's lead has been bolstered by iVote results, of which he secured 40 per cent to Ms Baker's 27.8 per cent.
In the region's other tight race, Port Stephens, incumbent Ryan Palmer has slightly extended his lead. He is in front of Labor challenger Leah Anderson by just over 360 votes.
The NSW Electoral Commission says the counting process is still in a relatively early stage, with more scrutiny to take place before numbers are finalised, as well as additional postal votes to come in and preferences counted. The informal vote is also likely to decrease after the official count.
