9.40PM

The Northern Daily Leader reports Senator John “Wacka” Williams calling New England for Barnaby Joyce.

Here’s what Tony Windsor had to say. 

9.35PM

Those who are eager to push the Hunter’s seats into marginal territory might want to look away. 

All the seats we have covered tonight bar New England have recorded swings towards Labor on a two-party preferred basis. 

Meryl Swanson’s win is thanks to a 10.29% swing towards her party in Paterson while the AEC indicates Joel Fitzgibbon won a 6.99% swing. 

Pat Conroy (+2.92) and Sharon Claydon (4.01%) also recorded bumps in their margin. 

Even Peter Alley, who was beaten in Lyne by incumbent David Gillespie, recorded a small swing towards the ALP. 

9.13PM

Joel Fitzgibbon has declared victory in Hunter.

That leaves only New England to be declared – Shortland, Paterson, Newcastle and Hunter are all Labor seats in the new parliament while Lyne will stay with the Nationals. 

Suggestions are that Barnaby Joyce will speak to media soon. 

9.10PM

Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers has acknowledged some voters faced unusually long waits on Saturday. 

“While peak periods for voting occur each election day, a number of factors appear to have contributed to some particularly long wait times,” the AEC said in a statement.

“Notwithstanding the increase in early voting rates, around 10 million Australians attended 7 000 polling places around the country to have their say.

Despite conjecture staffing levels were down, the AEC claims more staff than ever worked in polling places in 2016. Instead Mr Rogers contends changes to Senate voting slowed down the time spent poring over the ballot, making queues move more slowly.

“It is also likely that the proximity of school holidays substantially increased the movement of voters around Australia, and resulted in high demand for interstate voting services,” he said. 

Mr Rogers said the AEC will analyse all aspects of the 2016 federal election, including today's polling place activity, as part of its scheduled post-election review.

9.05PM

Pauline Hanson says she isn’t counting her chickens too early but “it’s looking good” for her to return to the Senate. 

Speaking of counting early, Barnaby Joyce is expected to speak to media in New England within the hour. Tony Windsor remains behind but his share of the numbers is preventing the Nationals from declaring a victory too early.

Those big parliamentary personalities from Queensland will also include Bob Katter, who has retained his seat. 

9PM

Ian Kirkwood: Sharon Claydon on her win in Newcastle. 

8.55PM

The Hunter Fairfax team 

8.50PM 

A quick recap: Labor have claimed Paterson, Shortland and Newcastle as in the bag. 

New England is not quite locked up for Barnaby Joyce, with Tony Windsor refusing to lie down as continued counting erodes the Deputy Prime Minister’s earlier lead.

With 82 of 89 polling places returned David Gillespie is returning in Lyne despite a 1.8% swing against him.

Joel Fitzgibbon also appears certain to continue being the MP for Hunter, with 32,222 votes in the bag compared to National Ruth Rogers’ 14,501. 

8.35PM 

Three Labor candidates are now officially claiming victory – Pat Conroy in Shortland, Meryl Swanson in Paterson and Sharon Claydon in Newcastle.

Watch their victory speeches below:

Meryl Swanson is also delivering her victory speech after declaring a victory over Karen Howard almost an hour ago. 

“Tonight a victory not for me, but for we,” she told supporters. 

8.30PM 

Michael McGowan in Paterson: Karen Howard says she will wait until "all the votes have been counted" before she makes a decision on whether to concede Paterson.

Ms Howard, the Liberal Party candidate in the Hunter's only seriously contested race, looks set to lose the seat, held for her party by the retiring MP Bob Baldwin since 2001.

Labor have claimed victory in the race, with a swing of about 9 per cent with 34 per cent of the vote counted.

But Ms Howard said she would wait until at least Sunday before making a final call. 

"At the moment, it's not about me, it's about the voters," she said.

"There will still be votes being counted well into the evening tonight so I'm pretty relaxed about respecting that process we'll wait see how it lands. 

"I think we will have more to say when the results are clearer. I'm reluctant to say too much before votes are counted. That's how I carry myself.

"I think [waiting until Sunday] is the most respectful thing to do". 

Ms Howard said it had been a "very hard fought campaign" but acussed Labor of "a large degree of negativity".

"There has been a high degree of negativity in this campaign [and] people get quite unsettled by that," she said,

"In Paterson I'm very proud of my campaign." 

If Ms Howard loses in Paterson, it will be the third time Ms Howard - who previously ran twice in the state seat of Newcastle - has lost an election race.

But she said she would not rule out running in the future.

"In various ways for the last half of my life, I've stood up for the people of the broader Hunter region and I've never been afraid to put myself forward," she said.

"I'm pragmatic, I never say never, but it's a bit early to be thinking about that."

8.20PM 

Michael McGowan in Paterson has spoken to Karen Howard, whose opponent has claimed victory in the seat. Ms Howard is not conceding the seat. 

Full update to come momentarily. 

Barnaby Joyce retains pole position in New England, which Sky News is already declaring for the Nationals. Tony Windsor's fortunes received a bump from Werris Creek, where he cast his vote earlier today. 

One Nation, which surged in Paterson, also had a bump in Manaroa – a 19.44% swing towards it.

8.10PM

We’re starting to get a clearer picture of who will represent the Hunter on the federal stage. 

As mentioned previously Labor’s Meryl Swanson is claiming victory in Paterson. Labor’s Sharon Claydon and Pat Conroy appear almost certainties. Mr Conroy is predicting a three per cent swing towards him. 

With 28% of the vote counted there she leads Karen Howard comfortably. A two-party preferred breakdown indicates almost a 60-40 win to Labor. Ms Howard is yet to concede the seat. 

Lyne appears a foregone conclusion for anyone who isn’t returning Nationals MP David Gillespie, who has tallied almost double his Labor opponent’s votes with 40% counted. 

Joel Fitzgibbon is bullish about his chances in Hunter, where he has a big lead with almost a quarter of the vote in the books.

8.05PM

It may be in the only Hunter seat where a candidate has declared victory but Pauline Hanson's One Nation has made a very strong showing in Paterson. 

The party  

8PM

Bad news for those eager for updates on the Senate race. 

There is no clear picture yet on whether Hunter hopefuls Michael Osborne (Greens) or Suellen Wrightson (Palmer United Party) will become senators, with only a smattering of those big white ballots tallied so far. 

7.47PM

Paterson candidate Meryl Swanson is claiming victory in the Hunter’s tightest race, with 41,106 of the seat’s 112,575 votes counted. 

She is expected to address 8.30pm. 

The result pries the region’s only non-Labor federal seat off the Coalition, and matches the seat’s nominal shift towards Labor after the boundary changes introduced for this election. 

Paterson on track for an 8.95% swing towards Labor. 

7.40PM

Ian Kirkwood in Newcastle has spoken to Liberal candidate David Compton. 

The AEC has Mr Compton facing a 6.43% swing against him on a two-party preferred basis and his opponent, Labor incumbent Sharon Claydon, returning comfortably. 

7.38PM

Michael McGowan in Paterson: The early results have Labor well ahead in Paterson, with One Nation also drawing an unexpectedly large portion of the initial vote.

With 3.93 per cent of the vote counted, Labor's Meryl Swanson leads the two party preferred count 57.5 per cent to Liberal candidate Karen Howard's 42.4 per cent.

One Nation and their candidate, Graham Burston, are drawing 12 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the Greens' John Brown on 6 per cent.

If those high numbers for One Nation continue, their preferences are going to be key to giving Ms Howard any chance of hanging onto the seat for the Liberal Party. 

That makes the result at Raymond Terrace Public School interesting. Ms Swanson won 653 votes, Ms Howard 258, and Mr Burston 228.

One of the scrutineers at the booth told me the prefences from One Nation were splitting pretty much down the middle, while Labor reveived most of the prefences from the Greens. 

7.35PM

The gap between Barnaby Joyce and Tony Windsor has narrowed in New England but Joyce remains ahead by a little under 3000 of the 17,598 votes counted so far. 

Daylight has emerged between Sharon Claydon and Liberal David Compton in Newcastle, Meryl Swanson has a 4000-vote lead with 26,581 counted in Paterson.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation trail well behind Karen Howard in the region’s closest race despite a double-digit swing towards them in the early numbers. 

David Gillespie is bordering on unbeatable, nearly 10,000 votes clear of Labor with most booths reporting. 

With only about 20,000 votes accounted for in Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon is also looking good to retain his position in a new-look Hunter seat. 

7.30PM

Amy De Lore in Shortland: Early results are looking good for Labor's Pat Conroy in Shortland. He has won the Whitebridge booth with 672 to 443 for the Liberals' Jenny Barrie, and has romped ahead in Gateshead after counting of first preferences 713 to 247.

Swings to Labor have been recorded in the Belmont Public School booth (won with 54.4% of the vote, up 1.15%) and Charlestown South (won 55.1%, up 9.1%).

7.25PM

Nationally the AEC has Labor leading in nine seats while the Coalition lead in 20.

112 remain undetermined and seven are close.

Two others are in play away from the two major parties, with Katter’s Australia Party and an independent candidate on track to take their place in parliament.

7.15PM 

Watch our reporters on the ground check in as the count continues here.

The AEC two-party projections would have Pat Conroy, Barnaby Joyce, Sharon Claydon, Joel Fitzgibbon, David Gillespie and Meryl Swanson elected. 

The margins are wide in most of those seats, with Barnaby Joyce forecast to take more than 70 per cent of the New England vote on two-party preferred. 

Fitzgibbon, Claydon and Gillespie are also projected to earn more than 60 per cent on a two-party basis. 

7.10PM

Scroll down for live numbers from each seat.

At 7.10pm there are few surprises looming for Labor among the safe Hunter seats. 

The Labor heartland appears to be swinging towards Bill Shorten’s party if anything, with redrawn boundaries so far posing problems mainly for the Liberal Party in Paterson. 

Shortland appears to be swinging towards the ALP, giving Pat Conroy a box seat to succeed Jill Hall if his luck holds.

Sharon Claydon likewise appears on track to stay on in Newcastle at these early stages, while Meryl Swanson likely to take Paterson from the Liberals on current trends. 

Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon is pulling clear of the Nationals’ Ruth Rogers as well. 

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce should retain New England and David Gillespie looks on track to keep Lyne for the Nationals. 

Sharon Claydon looks on track for the forecast win, with a swing towards the Labor incumbent in her safe seat. 

With 6426 votes on the books, she’s recording a +1.44% swing as Liberal David Compton looks at a -5.54% swing against him based on that early tally. 

Live numbers here:

Barnaby Joyce has drawn first blood in the battle with a returning Tony Windsor, taking off with more than half the first 4073 votes cast. 

It’s not all good news for the Nationals, though – those figures also show a -2.67% swing away from the Deputy Prime Minister.

Live numbers here:

First numbers gave Pat Conroy a comfortable head start. He collected 55.97% of the first 2756 votes cast. 

Liberal Jennie Barrie followed with 801, or 30.56% of that number

Live numbers updating here:

Incumbent National MP David Gillespie has raced out to a comfortable lead early. 

With 18,000 votes counted he has half of the formal votes on hand, leading his Labor challenger Peter Alley two to one. 

Live updated numbers below: 

Early numbers have Joel Fitzgibbon and Ruth Rogers (Nationals) very close. 

Live updates as the count continues here:

First numbers came from Tarro, where Sharon Claydon collected a comfortable polling place win in 2013 before the booth moved across the border. 

Meryl Swanson had half the vote on first figures. 

Live numbers here:

6.32PM

Those Lyne numbers turned around quickly. David Gillespie (NAT) now holds 45.63% of the 1087 formal votes tallied. Peter Alley (ALP) has 294 votes, or 27.05%. 

If that margin holds as the count continues, there is a 4.9% swing to Labor but a 29.55% swing to the incumbent Nationals. 

Consider grabbing some grains of salt with these early numbers, of course. Those swings are unlikely to hold. 

6.30PM

The first numbers are available in Lyne and New England. 

The first 92 votes counted in New England include 50 for Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and 20 for Tony Windsor. 

Five are informal, while Independent Rob Taber also notching five votes to sit third at this very early stage. 

More votes are tallied in Lyne, where incumbent Nationals MP David Gillespite has claimed 76 of the 283 formal votes counted. 

He sits narrowly behind Labor’s Peter Alley, who has 83 votes (29.33% of the vote so far) in hand. The Greens are four votes behind Mr Gillespie with 72 votes (25.44% of the vote so far).

We have a long way to go before anyone gets elected, but the first votes are always intriguing. 

6PM

That’s it. The polls are shut and counting is getting underway. 

The Singleton Argus’ Louise Nichols says perfect winter conditions meant voters could sit in the sunshine and much happily munch away on their BBQ selection of choice.

Sitting member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon, while visiting Singleton, said he expects the election to be very close.

“I really think its going to be tight,” he said. Read more here.

5.55PM

Minutes out from the polls shutting, it’s worth looking at the Hunter’s chances on that big white ballot paper for the Senate. 

Also, don’t forget that anyone in the line at 6pm is still allowed to cast their vote if they don’t make it into the polling place before the hour strikes.

Ian Kirkwood in Newcastle: With the double dissolution of the Senate, the Greens’ Michael Osborne is reckoned to stand a real chance of election even from the second position.

With the greens polling at about 14% in most opinion polls it will be interesting to see how Newcastle candidate John Mackenzie fares, given his high-profile in the region as a climate and anti-coal campaigner.

5.50PM

It seems Jill Hall’s confidence is not shared on the national stage by some of her counterparts on the Hunter hustings. 

Michael McGowan in Paterson: “In Medowie, the booth guy for Labor reckons his party have got "no chance" of winning the election. "We'll win Paterson easy but," he says.”

5.45PM

Adding the Greens’ Richard Di Natale to our leaders-who-vote coverage – he went to cast an absentee vote in the excellently-named seat of Batman, but forgot his ID. 

Luckily there was no “don't you know who I am” moment. 

5.40PM

Well there’s 20 minutes left to drop your vote but outgoing Shortland MP Jill Hall is calling her seat.

I guess it’s pretty safe to do, as long as you’re backing the ALP candidate – there have only been three Shortland MPs since it was proclaimed in 1949 and they’ve all been Labor. 

The boundaries are redrawn this time, but nobody seems to be tipping the seat to change hands. 

5.35PM

CWA Cessnock Evening Branch members Ellice Schrader and Johanna Rosee at their cake stall at the Cessnock West Public School. Another sell-out as the democracy sausage extends into democracy sweets. 

Actually, given all this popularity there’s probably good odds a Sausage Party will run for the Senate in a few years. 

5.30PM 

Amy De Lore in Shortland: Tim Nash offers a glimpse of how election day played out for campaigners at Kotara South Public School. 

5.25PM

You can watch Michael McGowan’s chat with Scot McDonald here.

The NSW Member of the Legislative Council has been stumping for Liberal candidate Karen Howard out in Salt Ash today. 

That race, in Paterson, is widely tipped to be the Hunter’s closest contest. 

Jasper, from Nelson Bay, just told Veronica and Lewis on Triple J that he "feels like a traitor" not voting for Bob Baldwin, the retiring Paterson MP.

Lewis Hobba advises him to stay "true to yourself". Good advice, I guess.

5.20PM

Tony Windsor cast his vote at Werris Creek Public School. 

While the candidates are making their way to polling places, the Australian Electoral Commission says almost three million prepoll votes were cast. 

The 2016 poll had 2.98 million voters who had their say before the big day, whereas in 2013 the number was closer to 2.31 million. About a million postal votes were also returned.

Apparently a fair few people do not enjoy a democracy sausage.

5.10PM 

Less than an hour left to cast your vote/dodge that fine. 

It’s been eight weeks in the making but the election madness is nearly over. 

Don’t forget we’ll have results, reaction and analysis all night as it becomes available from our Fairfax team stationed in New England, Shortland, Newcastle, Hunter and Paterson. 

5.05PM

Michael McGowan in Paterson: Scot MacDonald, the Baird government's Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, has been at Salt Ash Primary School for Liberal Party candidate Karen Howard since 6am this morning.

Salt Ash, remember, is right in the heart of the Williamtown contamination investigation area, and as you drive through there's signs critical of Defence and the government everywhere you look. 

For that reason, you might expect the booth to be an unhappy one, but Mr Macdonald says he hasn't sensed any overwhelming anger, the kind he felt in the Hunter at last year's state government elections.

Nor has he felt much strong feelings the other way, though. 

I've been hanging around at the school for about 40 minutes, and there's a slow trickle of last minute voters still making their way in. 

One of them was Anita Bugges, who, the Herald reported last week, is planning on quitting her home to get away from the Williamtown "red zone".

She wondered aloud whether she could rank all of the major parties sixth and still have her vote counted - that is, 6 6 6. Probably a fair assessment of how a lot of people in this area feel about federal politics right now.  

5PM

If you haven’t cast your vote yet, here’s the example our incumbent Prime Minister and Opposition Leader set. 

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten dropped his ballot paper in Melbourne’s Mooney Ponds – and he got to skip the line so the big media back following him around would rack off. 

That most suspenseful of questions, who did he vote for? “The best candidate”. 

On the other side of the fence, Malcolm Turnbull cast his vote in Double Bay Public School. 

4.50PM

Joanne McCarthy tells us there was no sausage sizzle at Tumbi High, while Beresfield was also devoid of fatty, salty goodness. 

The struggle is real. 

Renew Newcastle founder Marcus Westbury also weighed in on the enormity of the Senate ballot paper, which could easily have spanned three regulation voting booths. 

Did you spot any Senate voting gymnastics to make the paper fit? We’d love to see. Email news@theherald.com.au. 

4.45PM 

Nick Bielby and Matt Carr report: Both Karen Howard and Meryl Swanson camped out in Rutherford for the day. 

Apart from being on Maitland’s growing western edge, it is also the electorate’s biggest polling place . 

The area, which Paterson inherited from the former seat of Hunter in an electoral border shuffle for this election, is split into three polling places in the 2013 poll. 

Labor will be hoping the result holds or improves, after Joel Fitzgibbon comfortably won both Rutherford and Rutherford West. 

Rutherford North went to his Nationals opponent Michael Johnsen, now the state member for Upper Hunter. 

Some exit polling from Paterson primary votes courtesy of the Port Stephens Examiner’s Sam Norris: 40% of surveyed voters were favouring the Liberals’ Karen Howard, 30% Labor’s Meryl Swanson, 10% of the vote going to the Greens, 20% between non-specified minor parties and 5% of the vote Christian Democratic. One Nation won about 5%.

4.35PM

Ian Kirkwood: The pre-poll centre at 485 Hunter Street has been busy all week with pre-poll voting and from the start of voting today it became an interstate only voting centre.

There was a fair stream of people through the centre when Fairfax Media was there at about 4pm but party political volunteers said a lot of people had been turned away, less than happily, because they had turned up to vote and were not really pleased when they found they had to go out to one of the many other booths in the Newcastle electorate.

Labor has apparently put a lot of effort into interstate voting as an extra vote getter.

Liberal volunteer Graham Gordon and Labor volunteer Peter Harris of the CFMEU construction division kept up the good natured banter in the heart of what Labor regards as "Liberal territory" - the Dawson Street, Cooks Hill, polling booth.

An always smiling Sharon Claydon stayed out on the hustings on polling day, including some time at Waratah Public School late in the afternoon after a long day of campaigning and meeting voters.

4.30PM

New England incumbent and Nationals candidate Barnaby Joyce cast his vote at Woolbrook Public School, his alma mater, shortly before 4pm. The bookies have Mr Joyce a firm favourite ahead of Tony Windsor and the Greens’ Mercurius Goldstein, the Northern Daily Leader reports. 

4.25PM 

A Shortland update from Amy De Lore: 

“The remaining three booth workers at Kahibah Public School nearing the end of a busy day: Mick Flynn (Greens), Jeremy Knight and Pauline Chambers.

Pauline, 71, has missed only one election - federal, state and local - in 20 years.

She has been on deck since 6.30am and will man the booth until 6pm tonight.

4.20PM

Curious about how your area voted last time? Take a stroll through our interactives to examine which booths jumped which way in 2013.

You can explore the full figures (and search for your area) here. 

3.50PM 

Polls haven’t closed but the Hunter has its first official concession.

3.45PM

This from Newcastle Herald state political reporter Michael McGowan:

“There's still a couple of hours until booths close, but in Paterson there are some interesting exit poll numbers coming out. 

Union-conducted straw polls of voters at Kurri Kurri Public School and East Maitland Public School  are showing big swings to Labor and, surprisingly, One Nation.

The numbers are less positive for Karen Howard and the Liberal Party, and has them fighting for second place with One Nation, but I have to stress these are just exit numbers.

Here are the numbers at Kurri from 43 voters:

Labor - 69.7 per cent

Greens - 2 per cent

One Nation - 10 per cent

Liberals - 10 per cent 

Christian Democrats - 2.5 per cent

At East Maitland it's a similar result, but the Greens are doing much better. My unofficial pollster tells me that their figure could be inflated because the candidate, John Brown, had been at the booth about half an hour before the poll. Here are the numbers from 46 voters:

Labor - 45.6 per cent

Greens - 21 per cent

One Nation - 13 per ent

Liberals - 19.5 per cent

The biggest take homes are that, obviously, Labor appears to be doing very well in areas it traditionally does well in, and that One Nation is enjoying a big, unexpected swing - 10 per cent at East Maitland and 5 per cent at Kurri Kurri.

At Kurri Kurri these numbers represent a 13 point swing to Labor, and one per cent more than what Joel Fitzgibbon picked up in the 2010 election. At East Maitland, it's 10 points.

This is obviously a Labor-dominated booth, but it's also one of the areas the Liberals need to do well in to hang onto the radically reshaped Paterson. Instead, this poll has them losing 10 points. 

But the numbers at East Maitland looks even worse. 19.5 per cent would represent a 13 point swing against them. 

These numbers aren't necessarily predictive of anything, and should be interpreted cautiously but they still make for interesting reading.”

3.40PM

Over on Twitter, #democracysausage is running away ahead of #ausvotes as the most popular hashtag nationally. Never mind lifters and leaners, we are a nation united by the munch.

Pity the poor late voters who might miss out, if those anecdotal reports about the meat supplies running low at some booths are widespread. 

There’s also plenty of action from the Hunter candidates on social media in a last push in their marathon campaigns. 

Paterson Liberal hopeful Karen Howard is shooting out selfies with her volunteers while her Labor opponent Meryl Swanson got in early.

Apparently so did many of the voters in the patch they both wish to represent, with more than 21,000 votes cast in Paterson before the end of June. We sincerely hope all those pre-poll voters still enjoyed a democracy sausage. 

Speaking of the sizzle, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have found a pretty simple and effective campaign strategy – stand near the barbecue. Might put off the non-carnivorous vote, though. 

3.30PM

Further afield, Labor’s Anthony Albanese took some time out from pressing the flesh to hit the decks. Looks like that youth vote might pay off in a few years. 

3.20PM The Port Stephens Examiner’s Sam Norris is gauging the mood as voters leave the polls in Paterson. 

Here are some of his video interviews and comments from the punters exercising their democratic rights today. 

Meanwhile, Newcastle Herald state political reporter Michael McGowan says exit polling is throwing up some interesting results earlier. A full update from him shortly. 

3.15PM

Don’t forget to check back tonight for Hunter-wide results, analysis and reaction.  

Fairfax Media’s team will be talking to candidates and campaigners in Shortland, Paterson, Hunter, Lyne, New England and Newcastle from the moment the polls shut. 

Keep an eye on our continuous coverage here.  

3.05PM 

We’re getting anecdotal reports that the democracy sausages are on the wane, with many booths scraping off the barbecues and calling it a day with the food long before the polls shut.

On the bright side, the clean-up likely only requires one informal senate ballot paper. 

Are any of the region’s gas fires still burning up those snacks? We want to know about it. Shoot an email to news@theherald.com.au, or let us know in the comments. 

2.55PM

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s choice to chomp into the side of a sausage sandwich has become a hot topic of discussion on Twitter today. Bring on the memes...

2.45PM

A  real tradie was spotted among the voters at St Therese's primary school in New Lambton today.

#realtradie #faketradie

2.40PM

Do you need a last-minute cheat sheet on the federal election? Take the Your Vote quiz to find out which party you are most aligned with.

2.25PM

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has already cast his vote in the 2016 federal election...we wonder who he voted for?

2.10PM

Before we get into the politics of the day, take a look at this informative map of all the good sausage sizzle and cake stall locations #democracysausage

There were also sausage of a different kind.

2PM

It has been a busy morning across the Hunter as voters flocked to the polling booths to decide on who will be the next Australian Prime Minister.

The region covers several seats including Newcastle, Hunter, Paterson, Shortland, New England and Lyne.

EARLIER TODAY

It is finally here!

It was a long lead-up but the federal election is today and the Hunter will get a chance to choose the country’s next Prime Minster.

If you need to know where to vote, which electorate you are in or who the candidates are click here.

In the meantime check out what is happening at the polling booths. You can get involved in the conversation by using #HunterVotes on Twitter.