Council general manager Warwick Bennett has called for an expanded iVote system to speed up the process.

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"It's an embarrassment in this day of technology that it takes two and a half weeks to get a result," he said.

"Goulburn Mulwaree is paying close to $200,000 for this election and it shouldn't be taking this long."

Mr Bennett said colleagues in a general managers group agreed with the view.

The GM lodged an iVote, which he said took less than three minutes, and believed this should be broadened to obtain a quicker result.

"All levels of local government are requesting that voting go electronic," Mr Bennett told The Post.

"We do banking and investments electronically, shop and but tickets online and pay for a cup of coffee by tapping a card. People are used to it.

"Almost every country is doing voting online but for some reason, we seem to have a block in this country."

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The returning office, based at 133 Bourke Street, also processed the Yass Valley and Upper Lachlan Council election results. Those councils also pay the NSW Electoral Commission for the service, based on population.

Mr Bennett said due to the "Christmas rush," postal voting was left open longer but he did not believe this was sufficient excuse.

Newly re-elected councillor, Peter Walker, has also labelled the delay a "disgrace."

"I'd love to see the same system applied to state or federal elections and then see how they refine the count," he quipped.

"Everything today is electronic and I can't understand why it has to take until December 20. I was told it was due to the December 17 date for close of postal vote applications but why close them two weeks after the election. I thought it was very ordinary and they need to tighten things up big time."

Returning officer Lars Gudiksen said the election for the three councils ran smoothly but put the delay down to the fact that people were still lodging paper votes. Electoral staff then had to transfer them electronically.

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"When there are 40,000 ballots across three councils, it is time consuming," he said.

"...The only way around it is to come up with a safe and secure electronic system. The pertinent terms are safe and secure because other countries have tried and haven't been very successful."

Mr Gudiksen said state election results were quicker than council ones, due to the number of candidates. Goulburn Mulwaree had 17 candidates and preference distribution, which occurred on Monday, was more complicated.

Nevertheless, his 18 staff were ahead of the game in keying in postal votes as they arrived. Dates for the close of postal votes' and scheduling for preference distribution was set by the state body.

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Results showed that 'declaration votes,' which include iVotes, enrolment and postals, totalled 4183. Most people - 18,913 - opted to cast a paper ballot. There were 21,530 registered voters in Goulburn Mulwaree. A total 1519 informal votes were lodged, representing 8.03 per cent.

In 2016, it took nine days to return a result for the council area.

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