Maitland residents go to the polls on September 9th, with the election set to cost nearly half a million dollars.
Councillors were left gobsmacked after a quote from the Australia Election Company estimated the election would cost $497,633.
"It's very very expensive to run an election but its a cost that must be met, and I know that I'm possibly not alone when I say that computerised voting maybe bring it down a bit. Things have got to change," said Mayor Peter Blackmore.
The election in September will elect 12 councillors and one mayor by popular vote.
The high cost could be justified, Mayor Peter Blackmore says there is a lot involved with election preparations and manning polling stations on election day, and the money has to come from somewhere to pay for it.
Mayor Peter Blackmore believes another problem is that there are only two companies to choose from to run an election, which means competition, and therefore the costs are passed down to councils.
"We chose to go through the Australia Election Company instead of the normal process but its a case of if there's only two agencies that are competing, I think that indicates to you as to how much theses coast can be," he said.
