From early morning until the polls closed at 6pm, NSW Labor MP Paul Scully was leaving nothing to chance.
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As the last few voters hurried in to cast their ballots at Wollongong Public School, Mr Scully - the husband of Cunningham candidate Alison Byrnes - was there under an umbrella in the pouring rain handing out Labor's how to vote cards.
Among the stragglers were people who had worked all day, those who were waiting for crowds to subside and a couple of people who only remembered that they needed to vote at 5.55pm.
For one elderly couple, sickness and access had kept them away.
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"We were faced with the decision to come - even though I've been feeling giddy all day - or get a fine which was not a very good choice," the elderly woman said.
Another couple who left the school hall just before the doors were closed said they had tried to vote earlier in the day, but found the lines too long, and a woman just behind them said it was her third time trying to vote due to long lines.
A sleepy young man said he had "just forgot" until his dad woke him up, and another - the last person to leave before the doors shut - said he had worked all day and left it almost too late after finishing his shift.
As he exited the hall to hurry home in the rain, voting scrutineers arrived and the count began.
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