The ninth and final spot on Wagga's council looks set to go to either a seasoned councillor with nearly a decade's experience in the role or a first-time candidate pushing for her inaugural term.
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About 32,000 formal votes have now been recorded from the weekend's local government election and eight candidates appear to have done enough to secure a spot on Wagga City Council.
This includes Clean Out Council's Mick Henderson and Richard Foley, Labor's Dan Hayes and Amelia Parkins, The Greens' Jenny McKinnon as well as incumbent councillors Rod Kendall, Dallas Tout and Tim Koschel.
The last seat at the table is well and truly up in the air, with Clean Out Council's Paul Funnell and Getting It Done lead candidate Georgie Davies the two most likely to secure the spot.
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Ms Davies had never run for council before this election and said she had spent the last few days regularly refreshing the results website.
"It has been a bit of a rollercoaster," she said. "I keep checking the results but I still think it is too early to predict anything."
"The other spots seem fairly secure and it's just a race to the finish line for the ninth spot."
Standing in Ms Davies' way is Mr Funnell, who served nine years on council before his premature resignation in July.
Mr Funnell was the third name on the Clean Out Council ticket and admitted he was shocked to even be in with a shot of election.
"I thought there was zero chance and I've been on record saying it's basically impossible to get in from position three," he said.
"I actually haven't looked at the results because you can do your head in worrying about these things. I'll just go about my life and wait for the final spin of the wheel and what will be will be."
Almost all the initial first-preference votes have now been recorded with just some postal and declaration votes yet to be added to the official tally.
There is a good chance the final seat will be determined by how high Ms Davies and Mr Funnell (and their groups) were placed in the preferences of voters who did not name them as number one picks.
The flow of preferences could be more unpredictable this year, given how-to-vote cards were not handed out near polling booths due to COVID protocols.
Once all initial votes have been entered into the system, the process will begin to determine the exact results, which will be announced around December 20.
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