Incumbent Paterson MP Meryl Swanson was greeting scores of voters and handing out how to vote cards at Rutherford Technology High School throughout the morning.

Ms Swanson was in good spirits and encouraged constituents to make their vote count this election.

While across at Nillo Infants School at Lorn in the electorate of Lyne, there was a constant stream voters visiting the booth and chatting while munching democracy sausages.

The Maitland local government area is split over two electorates, Paterson and Lyne.

Tipped as a key seat, Paterson is currently held by Labor's Meryl Swanson with a 5 per cent margin while Nationals' Dr David Gilliespie holds Lyne by a comfortable 15.2 per cent.

There are seven candidates vying for the seat of Paterson and eight battling it out for Lyne.

If you haven't voted yet, you can find more information about the candidates in Paterson and Lyne here.

And if you haven't voted already, don't worry - the polling booths are open until 6pm this evening.

There are multiple polling booths scattered around Maitland and people can find out where they can vote here.

Now, democracy is hungry business so let's talk barbecues and bake sales. The pandemic has changed our election day tradition so where can you find your democracy sausage?

Well, we can confirm Bolwarra Public School, Nillo Infact School at Lorn and Largs Public School have the barbecues firing.

More to come.

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