Brian Ingram, Neil Langford, Jake Davis and Alison Foreman from Young and Matthew Stadtmiller from Cunningar have reached enough votes in the Hilltops Local Government election to be re-elected to Council for the next four years.

At the time of going to print there were still just under 3,500 first preference votes still to be counted in the Hilltops Local Government Election with, 11,135 first preference votes out of 14,584 locals enrolled to vote.

With a progressive quota of 855 first preference votes Brian Ingram, Neil Langford, Matthew Stadtmiller, Jake Davis and Alison Foreman have enough votes to be elected on to the new Hilltops Shire Council.

There was an informal vote rate of 7.92 percent with 882 ballots declared as being informal, meaning they are unclear, not marked correctly or unmarked all together.

At the time of going to print the top 11 vote counts sat at:

Brian Ingram - 1666 with 16.25 percent of the formal vote

Neil Langford - 1520 with 14.82 percent of the formal vote

Matthew Stadtmiller - 1153 with 11.25 percent of the formal vote

Jake Davis - 915 with 8.92 percent of the formal vote

Alison Foreman - 887 with 8.65 percent of the formal vote

Tony Flanery - 831 with 8.10 percent of the formal vote

James Blackwell - 478 with 4.66 percent of the formal vote

Jo Mackay - 471 with 4.59 percent of the formal vote

Mary Dodd - 441 with 4.30 percent of the formal vote

Abdullah Sultan - 404 with 3.91 percent of the formal vote

Michelle Gallo - 380 with 3.71 percent of the formal vote

Following the conclusion of the initial first preference count ballots will undergo a second count, which is known as a Check Count, this is the official count to determine the elected candidates.

Preferences from ballot papers will be entered into the NSW Electoral Commission computer count system which will determine the formality of each ballot paper based on the preferences entered.

The distribution of preferences is performed by the computer count system to determine the elected candidates.

In Hilltops the Proportional Representation System is used when allocating preferences. This means if a candidate is elected if they receive votes equal to or exceeding the quota. After the count of first preferences is complete, each candidate who has reached quota is elected.

Where an elected candidate has a surplus of ballot papers over the quota, the surplus is transferred to the candidates who are not yet elected or excluded. If multiple candidates are elected, as is the case in Hilltops, each candidate's surplus is transferred to the continuing candidates, from the highest surplus to the lowest.

After each transfer, if any more candidates have reached quota, they are elected and added to the queue of surpluses to be transferred, this continues until all have been transferred.

This process continues until all positions are filled or until all remaining vacancies can be filled by candidates whose total votes cannot be overtaken by the remaining candidates in the count.