Frank Farrell of Wolumla, and Ryker Bailey, were handing out election paraphernalia for the NLT party at Tura Beach on election day.

They had responded to an ad calling for people to man polling booths and promising $30 an hour for a day’s work, including bonuses should the party garner enough votes.

Mr Farrell said he had assumed the ad he responded to was from the NSW Electoral Commission, given its official look and use of the state emblem.

“That was our first assumption, then we got a bunch of gear in the mail and thought – who’s this No Land Tax party?” he said.

“They also said to have our mobile phones charged so they could contact us on the day, but I thought how are they going to do that when they’ve never asked for my number.

“That was when I started to smell a rat.”

Mr Farrell turned up to the Tura Beach polling booth to meet Mr Bailey - both fully expecting the NLT candidate to be in touch at some point during the day.

However, they found – just as the BDN has over the past several weeks – Clyde Archard is a hard man to track down.

“We’ve done this in good faith,” Mr Farrell said.

“We put in the hours and now there’s a likelihood we won’t get paid.

“It would seem he has misrepresented us.

“It all appeared very legit right up until we got there.

“The more I look at it, the worse it seems to get.

“At best it’s misrepresentation, but in my opinion it’s fraud,” he said.

Mr Farrell said it was “a weakness in the system” allowing minor parties to promote themselves in this way and prey on the goodwill of residents.

“It’s wrong that they can get away with it.

“It needs someone to coordinate this sort of thing, be it the Electoral Commission or whoever.”

NLT's lead Upper House candidate Peter Jones told the Sydney Morning Herald the party is working on paying the many people who handed out how-to-vote cards  this week.

About 3000 people worked for the party. At a promised rate of $330 a day, that amounts to nearly $1million.