As vote counting continued at the Lismore Region Returned Officers Office in Zadoc Street yesterday for the Lismore City Council Election, Steve Krieg increased his mayoral vote from yesterday's 48.17% to 48.45%.

Every percentage increase means it is virtually impossible for his opponents to catch him. Vanessa Ekins is the closest candidate at 21.05% (dropping from 21.25%). Ms Ekins now bows out of local politics after serving 20 years as a Lismore City Councillor and a short term as mayor.

Steve Krieg is yet to claim victory; however, that is expected to occur later today.

The makeup of the Lismore City Council for the next four years also became much clearer throughout yesterday's counting, although not finalised.

The Krieg Team will have control of council again after recording 5.33 quotas, up strongly from a concerning 4.66 on Sunday as pre-poll votes were counted from Goonellabah and Zadoc Street. That guarantees the five seats needed, plus the mayor, for a six-seat majority.

The Krieg Team will have Jeri Hall, Andrew Gordon, Electra Jensen and Andrew Bing as returning councillors, with Gianpiero Battista making a return to council after a three-year absence.

The Greens hopes of getting Dr Luke Robinson as a third councillor have evaporated. The Greens started the day with 2.94 quotas and hopeful but ended the day with 2.38 quotas. Adam Guise returns for a third term and has first-timer Virginia Waters for company. Virginia is the first Nimbin representative for quite some time.

Labor would be happy with its 2024 Lismore City Council Election result, moving from 1 councillor to 2. First-time councillors Harper Dalton-Earls and Jasmine Knight-Smith will be part of the eleven-member council.

Big Rob would be another happy man after easily being voted on to Lismore City Council in 2024, with 1.22 quotas compared to 0.83 of a quota in 2021. At one stage, it looked as though the Krieg Team would win 5 seats and Big Rob would have the balance of power. However, they play looks highly unlikely.

It would appear the split of votes from Elly Bird's Our Sustainable Future Party has been shared between Labor and The Greens, which has helped both parties achieve two Lismore City Councillors.

Voting continues today with the below-the-line votes to be allocated in the Councillor Election. That will get the total votes to about 27,000, which was the total in 2021.

The mayoral votes have approximately 7,000 to be counted to hit the 26-27,000 mark. These include the Lismore Zadoc Street booth pre-poll votes and postal votes. The indicators are these will favour Steve Krieg as he Krieg Team vote increased after being counted yesterday in the councillor vote.

The informal vote will end up around the 3-4% mark but won't be known for some time as the informal is mixed with the below-the-line votes, unclear ballot papers and formal ballot papers that are marked Above and Below the line..

The 2024 Lismore City Council Election will not be declared until after all postal votes have been received. The deadline to receive postal votes is 6pm Friday, September 27. The result will be declared in writing between 1 and 3 October 2024.