Exactly 17,240 first-preference votes were recorded in the hours after Wagga's local government election, with just the early and online votes yet to be tallied.

Clean Out Council came away with 4,562 of the first-preferences, which was enough to give them 26.46 per cent of the initial formal votes.

The opening results suggest boat club commodore Mick Henderson and plasterer Richard Foley have secured spots at the council table for the next three years and there is also a possibility former councillor Paul Funnell sneaks into the ninth spot.

Right on the heels of the leaders is the Labor ticket, who received 3,984 first-preferences and at this stage hold 23.11 per cent of the votes.

This would see lead candidate Dan Hayes reclaim his spot on council and be joined by architect Amelia Parkins, who ran as the second name on the Labor ticket.

Speaking to The Daily Advertiser on election night, Mr Hayes said his group would be holding off from the celebrations until everything was confirmed.

"Pre-poll is going to be the biggest booth and that will come through last," Mr Hayes said.

"So we'll wait until the results are finalised before we celebrate or commiserate, but things are looking good so far."

There was a big drop off in votes after the two front-runners, however it appears four groups have done enough to get their lead candidate into council.

These include Supporting Diversity's Rod Kendall, The Greens' Jenny McKinnon, Community First's Dallas Tout and Here For You's Tim Koschel.

MORE ELECTION COVERAGE:

Challenging former councillor Paul Funnell for the final spot at the table appears to be road-focused Georgie Davies, the lead candidate for the Getting It Done group - however it is not yet known how the thousands of pre-poll votes will shake up the picture.

Only 7,951 formal votes have been counted for the mayoral referendum and many more are expected to be recorded from Monday, however at this stage 51.18 per cent of the Wagga LGA have voted in favour of changing to a system where the mayor is elected by the residents.

About 15 per cent of the votes cast in yesterday's election have been scrapped after being deemed informal.

Initial counting is expected to continue on Monday and the official tallies will begin to form over the next few weeks.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: