There could be 10s of thousands of people hit with fines for not voting in the local government elections in the Hunter.
The electoral commission says the penalty for not voting in NSW is a $55 fine and people must respond within 28 days of the issue date of the notice.
Not knowing that an election was being conducted is not a sufficient reason for the failure to vote at an election.
In Newcastle, 126,400 people were enrolled to vote, but only 106,499 ballot papers returned.
In Lake Macquarie, there were more than 166,000, but only 141, 648 ballot papers returned.