The Kiama councillor running for re-election was leading the race as of Sunday morning with 563 votes.

By Sunday, all formal and prepoll votes had been counted in the election to select nine councillors.

There are still as many as 500 votes – including postal votes – still to be counted and it is expected to be several days before the official results are known.

It was reported that 3850 of an estimated 17,020 eligible Kiama voters had done so during the pre-poll period.

Cr Honey was running as part of the Honey/Westhoff Team.

He tops the list for votes of all candidates in his team.

Greens councillor Andrew Sloan is second overall with 328 primary votes and former state MP Matt Brown is third with 265 votes.

Another Kiama councillor – Independent Mark Way – is hot on Mr Brown’s heels with 261 votes.

When it comes to the party vote The Greens ticket picked up more above the line votes than any of the other five teams, with 2331 – or 19.87 per cent.

The Honey/Westhoff Team is in second spot with 18.47 per cent of the vote – 2167 and Mr Brown’s Community and Labor ticket is third with 1776 votes – or 15.14 per cent.

Following both a federal election and council amalgamation plebiscite during recent months, there were concerns some Kiama residents may have been experiencing voter fatigue. 

However, Kiama residents Chris and Tina Symonds felt it was their duty to cast a vote at Saturday’s council elections. 

“If you care about your community, you should vote,” Mrs Symonds said. 

Current councillor Gavin McClure did believe a degree of voter fatigue had set in for some residents. 

“A lot of residents don’t even know it’s on,” he said at The Pavilion polling booth.

Fellow councillor Andrew Sloan, number one on the Greens ticket described election day as a “great celebration of democracy”.

He said while there may have been a little fatigue among voters, “we’re lucky to be able to have a vote at all with the amalgamation debacle that the state (government) put us through”. 

“So people are happy, everyone’s getting on, it’s respectful,” he said. 

Seven of the nine current Kiama councillors re-contested.

Current Mayor Brian Petschler and Cr Dennis Seage didn’t seek another term.

Current councillors Neil Reilly, Kathy Rice and Mark Way, as well as Mr Brown have expressed interest in the mayoral role.