Voters can do some strange things - like voting for candidates who are all but invisible.
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In Whitlam, Colin Hughes ran for One Nation. But who was he? Was he even real?
No pictures of the candidate seem to exist, he didn't even appear on the One Nation website's official list of candidates and party rivals say they never laid eyes on him at pre-poll booths or on election day.
He doesn't appear to have made any policy promises for the region either.
Despite this complete no-show almost 7000 voters still thought he deserved their vote.
Realistically, this One Nation ghost was included just to raise money for the party.
One Nation can now claim election funding for this ghost candidate - which will be around $7352.
Not a bad return for doing no work at all.
The voters in Cunningham were doing strange things too.
In that electorate, Liberal voters came out in their droves to support a candidate who was little more than a placeholder.
Marcus Uren doesn't live in the area, barely set foot in the electorate for the whole campaign, didn't hold a press conference and didn't even make a single pledge to do anything at all for the region.
And yet he got 23,349 first preference votes - which qualifies the party for more than $11,000 in taxpayer funds.
Again, not a bad return for an election campaign that likely had almost zero expenses.
With that many votes, Mr Uren may well have been watching the coverage from his Eagle Vale home worried he might win and be forced to move into the electorate.
Two things arise from this surprisingly high Liberal vote.
The region's Liberals are prone to criticise Labor voters as being "rusted on"; they'll vote for anyone the party dishes up.
With this result, Liberal voters have shown they're just as rusted on themselves.
The other thing is the very real risk it may see the party continue to treat the electorate with contempt.
If a placeholder candidate can score 25 per cent of the vote by doing nothing, there is the concern the party may continue to give up on the electorate and put in more placeholders.
What the Liberals really need to do is run serious candidates - and run them hard.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
