NO women will contest the seat of Bathurst for the first time in 28 years when voters go to the polls on March 23.
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Six candidates - all men - had nominated for the poll in time for the official ballot draw on Thursday morning,
Paul Toole (Nationals) will appear at the top of the ballot after his name was the first drawn from the barrel by election manager Stuart Evennett, with Timothy Hansen (Keep Sydney Open) drawn second.
They were followed by David Harvey (The Greens), Michael Begg (Sustainable Australia) and Beau Riley (Labor), with Brenden May (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers) the final name drawn.
Stuart Evennett draws the first name …
Bathurst voters have to go back to 1991 to find the last time there were no women on the state election ballot paper.
Four years ago there were three women candidates out of the five on the ballot paper, including Tracey Carpenter (The Greens), Cassandra Coleman (Labor) and Narelle Rigby (Christian Democrats).
Mr Evennett said early voting would open at the Bathurst and Lithgow pre-polling offices on Monday morning.
About one-third of the electorate's registered voters are expected to cast a vote before polling day.
"There are approximately 57,000 registered voters in the Bathurst electorate and we anticipate that throughout the electorate there will be about 19,000 people who choose to vote early," Mr Evennett said.
"Early voting has certainly stepped up across the years. I was first appointed to this role in 1987 and when I started we had about 1200 early voters [at the Bathurst office alone] compared to possibly 11,000 this year."
This will be Mr Evennett's ninth time overseeing a Bathurst state election.
The Bathurst early voting centre (96 Bentinck Street) and Lithgow centre (Uniting Church hall, 43 Bridge Street) will be open next week from 8am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturday, March 16.
The centres will then open from 8am-6pm each day of the following week, except for Thursday, March 21 when people will be able to cast a vote up until 8pm.
On polling day, there will 40 polling booths across the electorate, plus one in Sydney.
The early voting centres will not be open for voting on polling day.
Early voting will also be available in Oberon and Rylstone during the last week before polling day.
