Main players get impatient for final tally in 2010 Australian Federal Election

Virtual Tally Room at 6pm on 27 August 2010
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The Denison electorate in Tasmania is one of those polling anomalies where the bulk of first preference votes clearly got to one candidate (in the this case Labor) but following preferences are expected to flow in large numbers to a second candidate (in this case an Independent).

Today the Australian Electoral Commission staff and candidates scruntineers are counting Denison preferences in this electorate according to an 27 August 2010 AEC media release.

It would appear that all the main players in the national hung parliament scenario are becoming a mite impatient and would like Andrew Wilkie's position clarified asap.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced today that a preliminary distribution of preferences will occur in the electorate of Denison (Tasmania) this Saturday, 28 August.

State Manager and Australian Electoral Officer for Tasmania, Sandra Riordan said the decision to conduct a provisional scrutiny at this earlier stage in the count was to assist in providing some early certainty of the closely contested result of the 2010 federal election for the Electoral Division of Denison.

The provisional scrutiny on Saturday will be conducted on all available ballot papers that have been fully rechecked for the electorate of Denison, and will include all votes cast at polling places on election day, and all early votes that have been processed to date.

Following completion of the provisional scrutiny a further media release will be issued and available on the AEC website.

A provisional scrutiny involves a full distribution of preferences on the ballot papers, and scrutineers are able to be present during the count. The first distribution reallocates the votes of the candidate with the fewest first preferences to the next available candidate. Following that distribution, the votes of the candidate with the next fewest votes will be reallocated to the remaining available candidates. Finally the votes of the candidate that then has the fewest votes remaining will be reallocated. After that third distribution it is expected that the leading candidate, and consequently the likely result of the election, will become clear.

For more information on the counting of votes in the 2010 federal election, visit the virtual tally room.