9PM: The ABC are predicting incumbent David Gillespie will retain the seat:

8.30PM: Here’s how the AEC virtual tally room has it looking for Lyne.

6PM: That’s it. The polls are shut and counting is getting underway. 

Confusion at Oxley Island Hall: Full story here

5pm: Dennis and Valerie Chapman and Pat Carberry have been handing out how-to-vote sheets for the National Party at Manning Gardens Public School since 8am.  The trio will push through to the close of voting at 6pm.

“It’s been good, except when I tried to hand one fella a sheet and he swore at me,” Pat said.“It’s been good besides that.  Even when (National Party candidate Dr David) Gillespie came here, I asked ‘are you interested in a how-to-vote sheet?”

3.30: Clear skies have greeted voters across the region and we’ve been out and about capturing all the action – click the photo below to see the whole gallery

1.26pm: Julie Lyford has visited the Taree High School polling booths, but says she is still waiting to vote in her hometown of Gloucester. Julie Lyford said she appreciated the camaraderie at the pollings as she travelled through the Lyne electorate. “I’m feeling really happy,” said Mrs Lyford. 

Mrs Lyford said she has found to the reactions to this the Greens this election as positively surprising.

June Mills, who handed for the Greens at Taree High School, said, “there was no negativity”.

12.16pm: Federal member for Lyne and National candidate Dr David Gillespie has voted at Taree High School with his wife Charlotte.

Dr Gillespie said he was feeling encouraged by his visits around the electorate.

He also spoke to the Manning River Times about the changes in the Lyne electorate’s boundaries in this Federal election.

11.30am: Lines at Old Bar remain steady. The staff are getting the large numbers through quickly. Lines have not exceeded more than 30 people.

There’s no need to have lunch before you attend Old Bar Primary School’s polling booth either. The canteen is full of lunch and snack foods. It’s not your regular sausage sizzle either, the ladies have gone all out with spinach and ricotta rolls, butter chicken and sandwiches. 

THE Nationals’ David Gillespie currently holds the seat which experienced a dramatic boundary shuffle earlier this year.

The 16,099 square kilometre electorate gained areas north of Maitland after the realignment saw the northern part of the Paterson electorate become part of the seat.

Out with Paterson, in with Lyne in federal electorate reshuffle: background story here

This led to months of speculation about Paterson MP Bob Baldwin’s future as the redistribution turned his previously safe seat notionally Labor.  But in April this year he announced his retirement.

Paterson shock: Bob Baldwin announces retirement

This left the National Party stronghold with an area from Ballengarra in the north to Lorn and Karuah in the south. The southern boundary follows the Hunter River from Greta to the junction of the Hunter and Paterson rivers at Raymond Terrace and then flows below Karuah to the coastline. 

Gillespie took the seat at the 2013 election winning an absolute majority in the wake of independent Rob Oakeshott’s retirement.

In an electorate considered a National Party stronghold, many are tipping him to be successful. These include betting agencies such as Sportsbet, which have installed Dr Gillespie as an unbackable favourite at $1.01.  

Gillespie tipped to hold his seat: Full story here

1 Labor candidate Peter Alley 

2 Greens candidate Julie Lyford

3 Christian Democratic Party candidate Elaine Carter

4 Independent Brad Christensen 

5 Lyne MP and Nationals candidate David Gillespie

6 Independent Rodger Riach 

►Read more about each of the candidates here

Check out the nearest polling place to: click here