MORE than 23,000 people, about 6 per cent of Hunter voters, turned in informal ballot papers.
Early figures from the Australian Electoral Commission show about 5.65 per cent of votes nationwide would not count because they were filled out incorrectly on Saturday or left blank.
Only 3.95 per cent of votes were informal at the 2007 election.
In the Hunter, 5385 informal ballots had been cast in Charlton, 7.11 per cent of the total.
In Shortland 5023 informal votes made up 6.58 per cent of the total votes.
Re-elected Shortland MP Jill Hall said her scrutineers reported a large number of people who appeared to have mistakenly voted informally.
"They said there was a really high proportion of people who voted '1' and didn't number the other boxes," Ms Hall said.
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