Candidates traipsed across the the Riverina electorate all day, vying for the undecided vote in their bid to secure a seat in parliament.
Nationals candidate Michael McCormack opened the Kooringal booth with his daughter, Georgina, and son, Nicholas, before campaigning at Lutheran School, Lake Albert and Glenfield Park.
“It got a bit cold over at Lake Albert, in fact I went and bought coffee for the Christian Democrats and Labor,” Mr McCormack said.
“Honestly, the comradery between the volunteers and party faithful is very good.”
One voter balked at Mr McCormack’s offer of a how-to-vote card, telling him to wipe his backside with it.
“Isn't that a great democratic right that you can tell your local member that,” he said.
Labor’s Tim Kurylowicz stopped in at Gundagai, Nangus, Junee, Coolamon, CSU and North Wagga.
“There was genuine anger in the community and quite a palpable shift to Labor at both Gundagai booths,” Mr Kurylowicz said.
“Nangus is tiny little community and a lot of people were really thrilled to have a candidate out to visit.
“A lot of people in Junee were really interested in high speed rail, given it's historically been a railway town.”
Independent Richard Foley was visibly spent after an eight week campaign culminating in an online war of words with gay rights advocates over a Facebook post insinuating homosexuals are an evolutionary mistake.
“The keyboard warriors have been frothing at the mouth, but they’re entitled to be wrong,” Mr Foley said.
“Two friends of mine, a gay couple, have been handing out leaflets for me, people need to lighten up.”
Mr Foley hit six Wagga polling booths throughout the day, in a bid to claw back his financial outlay.
“I’ve spent $7,000 on posters and pamphlets and haven’t worked for 3 weeks, it’s a huge sacrifice,” he said.
“I am hopeful for 4 per cent of the vote, which would get me $2.63 per vote, which I would tip into my local government campaign in September.”
Greens candidate and sitting Wagga councillor Kevin Poynter spent the morning in Gundagai, where he pledged to support a federal Labor plebiscite on council mergers.
“Local government autonomy is an important issue for all of us,” Mr Poynter said.
“The government should come here (to Gundagai) and let people decide their own futures, rather than dictate from Sydney.”
Mr Poynter voted at Wesley Church Hall and spent time in Turvey Park.
