The polls closed at noon on Saturday and about 24 hours later election management services company electionz.com had still not produced preliminary results for the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council.
This prompted the Otago Daily Times to ask a few candidates near the threshold of making it or missing out how they were faring.
"It’s pretty stressful, frankly," Mr Treadwell said at 4pm yesterday, as the wait continued for an update.
"I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night."
Mr Treadwell, the Green Party candidate, said he spent yesterday morning mowing lawns and then "had some rainy adventures with the sprog".
"Now I’m responding to a few premature commiseration messages."
Mr Treadwell said he thought delays were understandable.
"The extremely close mayoral race and the massive surge of last-minute votes will mean they’re giving it extra scrutiny."
Conrad Stedman appeared likely out of the race at 18th and said he accepted the results so far.
Mr Stedman, part of the Future Dunedin ticket, said he walked the puppies and carried on with work around the house and business.
Sophie Barker, who was leading the mayoralty contest by a slim margin on progress results, said she felt for candidates awaiting more clarity on whether they had likely been elected.
She had received congratulatory text messages, including from outgoing Dunedin mayor Jules Radich, but was herself reluctant to "count my chickens before they’ve hatched".
Cr Barker said she got some gardening done.
She had bought some plants and planted them until it started to rain.
"My nerves don’t get frayed," she said.
Also headed for the garden, and mowing lawns, was Andrew Simms, who was just 105 votes behind Cr Barker in the mayoralty race, based on progress results.
"There’s been a lot of phone calls, there’s been a lot of messages, and I’ve ... wanted to try and reply to everybody, so that’s taking up a bit of time as well — but I’m trying to make sure it’s not dominating the day," Mr Simms said.
He was surprised and "a little concerned" about the wait.
"But I understand it is knife’s-edge close as well ... probably, more than ever, the accuracy is necessary.
"The electoral officer will be wanting to be 100% confident that the result they give is the result."
A city council spokesman said "our focus — and that of Electionz — is on the integrity of the result and ensuring the preliminary vote accurately captures all final-day votes".
For the regional council’s Dunedin constituency, Alan Somerville was just in and Elliot Weir was just out.
"I’ve spent the day gardening and walking on the beach," Cr Somerville said.
"It is a little weird to be competing with my good friend Elliot Weir for a spot."
Cr Weir hiked up Mihiwaka, chatted with friends and family and did a little browsing on the Seek jobseeker website.
"It will be very mixed feelings for me regardless of the results, as it seems I won’t be working with my mate Alan any more."
— Additional reporting Ruby Shaw
