There may have been corflutes, volunteers handing out how to vote cards and even a visit from the Prime Minister, but the Voice referendum day was a very different kind of voting day in the Illawarra.
From Kiama to Helensburgh, there was little of the carnival of democracy that usually greets voters when they show up at their local school to cast their vote.
Most of the action was away from the voting booths, with the region's energy soaked up by the Yours and Owls festival.
Even Prime Minister Albanese's son Nathan only momentarily handed out Voice materials, before heading off to join about 25,000 at the University of Wollongong. Expect to see him at the Owls Stage from 8pm, having picked the Hilltop Hoods as his choice from the line-up.
But elsewhere in the Illawarra, the lines snaking through the playground were gone, replaced by a few brief queues at polling stations.
Once given their ballot paper, locals had a simpler task, writing yes or no in the box, instead of dealing with the table-cloth long Senate ballot papers of previous elections.
This meant for many voting on the day it was a simple in and out.
But much more than the size of the ballot paper, in some cases a majority of voters had already cast their vote before voting day.
This referendum has seen unprecedented numbers of early voting, and Illawarra electorates had some of the highest figures.
More than 50 per cent of enrolled voters in Gilmore cast their vote before referendum day. Over 47 per cent of voters went to a pre-poll station and more than eight per cent cast a postal vote.
These pre-poll figures were only topped by voters further south on the NSW South Coast in Eden-Monaro and in the division of Hinkler, which covers Bundaberg and its surrounds in Queensland.
In Whitlam and Cunningham, voters also preferred to get in early, with 43 per cent and 36 per cent respectively casting their vote at a pre-poll centre.
For comparison, in the last federal election, pre-poll and postal votes combined made up only 15 per cent of votes cast in Gilmore, 10 per cent in Whitlam and 11 per cent in Cunningham
Whether this has an impact on the result remains to be seen, but it certainly made for a lot more muted voting day.
Our news app has had a makeover, making it faster and giving you access to even more great content. Download The Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store and Google Play.
