The museum holds 103 ballot papers from the May 23, 1887 election each initialed by the returning officer along with the tally sheet which was used to mark the ballots as they were counted.

Clive Smith, president of the museum said it was a great snapshot of our history.

“They are a great little collection which shows the first elected council in Port Macquarie,” Mr Smith said.

“We can tell that in the first election there were three informal votes recorded but counting the votes back then was different to how it is done today.

“Back then people would strike through the names of the people who they didn’t wish to elect leaving up to six name clean.

“From there it was the returning officers job to count how many votes each candidate got.

“The person with the most votes obviously won.”

Mr Smith said the first past the post counting style is in stark contrast to the preferential voting used these days.

“James McInherney received 97 votes which was the most votes of any candidate,” he said.

“The elected councilmen then came together to vote in a mayor which ended up being James McInherney.

“We are not sure if that was because he received the most votes in the general election or not.”

The councilmen were sworn into office on May 28 of that same year.

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