Polls closed in NSW council elections as vote counting begins

The full election result of today’s council elections may not be know for weeks.(ABC News)

Polls have closed across NSW on local council election day 2021 as candidates across the state anxiously await the outcome.

Votes will be counted from 6pm with results set to start trickling in as the night continues.

More people opted to vote online than in any previous election, with the NSW Electoral Commission’s iVote site crashing on Saturday morning.

Full results of the votes in the 124 council elections, and 35 mayoral contests, held on Saturday will likely not be known for weeks.

But early counting should provide an accurate picture of who the next local leaders will be.

Speaking on Saturday afternoon, the City of Sydney’s long-serving lord mayor, Clover Moore, said she was hopeful of continuing in the top job.

Cr Moore was seeking to extend her 17-year reign at the helm of the city and said she believed having a “vision” for Sydney had resonated with voters through the years.

“I think the central issue in this election is about recovery from COVID-19 and I think the second issue in this electorate is about addressing climate change,” she said.

“I think they’re the two things that are front of people’s minds and they’re certainly things that are top of our priority.”

Liverpool’s outgoing Mayor Wendy Waller said strict COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney’s south-west had highlighted the work councils do in the community.

She said her council handed out 2,000 food hampers per week during the height of the lockdown.

“We’re seeing wellbeing as, I think, one of the most important issues for our residents because it’s not just about roads, rates and rubbish … but local government has become a very complex beast now and it’s providing a lot of things for people,” she said.

Earlier on Saturday, the NSW Electoral Commission’s online voting system iVote crashed.

Eligibility to vote online was expanded this year with more than twice as many voters choosing to register instead of braving the queues on election day.

The number of online votes rose to 652,983 since the system opened on November 22, up from 234,401 in 2019.

In apologising for the outage, iVote said in a statement: “Almost triple the number of voters have used iVote at these elections than any previous election.”

Anyone who requested for iVote but were unable to cast their ballots due to Saturday’s crash will be excused from penalties.

People who failed to vote face a fine of at least $55.

Counters will not begin tallying online votes until 6pm on Monday.