Somewhat behind the two high-flying leaders in Wagga's council election, multiple groups have etched themselves a spot in the middle of the pack.
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The Greens, Supporting Diversity, Community First and Here For You will all be confident they have done enough to secure a seat for their lead candidates so long as the upcoming wave of pre-poll votes does not change things significantly.
Should that be the case, the Greens' Jenny McKinnon would be elected to council alongside returning councillors Rod Kendall, Dallas Tout and Tim Koschel.
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The Greens were well off the pack when the initial votes came in from Collingullie, Currawarna, Mangoplah and Tarcutta but picked up steam when the Wagga polling centres began to publish their results.
The environment-focused ticket picked up 1630 first preferences, which was enough to give them 9.45 per cent of the initial formal votes.
Lead candidate Dr McKinnon is hoping the election day trend will continue when counting resumes on Monday.
"We saw our percentage rising as time went on over Saturday evening and I'm very hopeful that we will continue going that way and get over the line to get one person in," Dr McKinnon said.
Rod Kendall's Supporting Diversity ticket has received the third most first preferences so far and holds 10.92 per cent of the initial formal votes.
The votes are enough for the long-term councillor and former mayor to retain his seat, however it is unlikely his running mate Rory McKenzie will be elected.
"We're sitting in third at this stage but personally I'm disappointed that it would appear Rory is not going to get on," Mr Kendall told The Daily Advertiser.
"That was my aim in this election - to get Rory a spot - but the result is the result and we will work with it and see how the distribution goes."
The situation is similar for the three groups on Supporting Diversity's tail, which includes the Greens, Dallas Tout's Community First and Tim Koschel's Here For You.
The final spot on council looks likely to go to either Paul Funnell, the third candidate on Clean Out Council, or Georgie Davies, the lead candidate on Getting It Done.
Mrs Davies said she is "not overly confident" but will wait for the pre-poll votes to arrive before giving up hope.
"There were a lot of pre-poll votes but I think it's likely they will follow the trend of the election and swing to Group G (Clean Out Council)," she said.
Former councillor Mr Funnell did not make any guesses but said he was overwhelmed with the amount of support the community has shown his "motley crew" this election.
Initial counting will continue on Monday and the official tallies will begin to form over the next few weeks.
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