Muswellbrook voters had the hard task of culling 26 candidates down to 12 councillors in Saturday's election.
There are no mayoral votes in the town, with elected councillors choosing the next mayor.
But it is still early days for Muswellbrook numbers with only 1216 votes out of 11,954 counted before tallying resumes on Monday September 16.
So far, only first preference above-the-line voting for grouped candidates and first preference voting for ungrouped candidates had been counted with pre-poll, below-the-line and postal voting yet to be tallied.
Candidates listed under group B had taken a slight lead with 30.3 per cent of first preference votes while group A candidates had 15.1 per cent, group C had 20.4 per cent with the remaining 34 per cent going to ungrouped candidates.
Current councillor and independent candidate under group B, Jeffrey Drayton said they were happy with the results so far but said it was too early to pass judgement.
"I have run a fairly hard campaign, and campaigns are no different to anything else, if you work hard, you get the result at the end, so fingers crossed that happens," he said.
"The most important bit is to make sure we get the right people elected and get on with what we need to do because we have a hell of a lot we have got to do here."
He said one issue the council might need to address going forward was the Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) kerbside bin collection, and changes in how household rubbish was collected.
Long-term focus should be on where the area was headed with coal mines and jobs in the community, he said.
"One of the most immediate issues for us is trying to get people to live here, and get involved in the community."
"If you can understand the community, you obviously will understand the issues that need fixing."
