The 2025 federal election is shaping up to be not only the largest but also the most complex count in Australian history, with progress continuing smoothly and ahead of previous timetables.
Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope confirmed in a statement that more ballot papers were counted on election night than ever before, and that trend has continued in the days since.
“The nation already has clarity not just on who is forming government but on most House of Representatives and Senate seats around the nation.”
Despite formal declarations still pending, the Australian Electoral Commission’s ongoing tally of postal votes and preference distributions has allowed analysts to predict outcomes in key seats such as Goldstein, Ryan and Melbourne. Pope noted that this election required an unprecedented number of two-candidate preferred resets and three-candidate preferred counts to clarify results in certain divisions, adding to the complexity but handled within existing planning frameworks.
A technical briefing held yesterday for analysts and media representatives outlined the state of play in close contests. Mandatory secondary counts, known as fresh scrutiny, are well underway, and most postal vote roll verifications have been completed. Similar checks are now occurring for absent votes.
“We’re acutely aware of the focus on seats that continue to be remarked upon as having a result in doubt,” Pope said, citing Kooyong in Victoria, Longman in Queensland, Bean in the ACT, Bradfield in New South Wales, and Bullwinkel in Western Australia. While efforts to prioritise these seats are ongoing, he cautioned that it’s not simply a matter of putting more people on the task. “We’re rapidly approaching that point in the counting process where we’re getting through absolutely everything we have to hand,” he said, noting the challenge of awaiting returns from interstate and over 100 countries overseas.
“For particularly close seats, people will have to be patient. Transport and roll checks for declaration votes takes time and our processes are mandated by our legislation and guided by the principle of ‘right, not rushed’.”
Scrutineers appointed by candidates have been present across counting centres, with Pope emphasising their crucial role in maintaining transparency. “We are seeing a large volume of scrutineers in some count centres, which is important but it can understandably slow the activity down a little,” he said, noting that it is not uncommon to have more scrutineers than staff counting in tight races.
Looking ahead, fresh scrutiny is expected to be largely completed by Tuesday 13 May. Counts of declaration votes and incoming postal ballots will continue throughout next week, with the final postal deadline falling on Friday 16 May.
“We’ll be counting what we receive as soon as we can after we receive and process it. This will include some weekend work planned around the work to hand in close seats,” Pope added. He praised the ongoing respect shown by media, political participants and scrutineers for the process, noting that this enduring patience has kept Australia’s democratic practices in high esteem.
The Senate count is also progressing well. More than 6.1 million Senate ballot papers have completed their initial counts, all under the watch of candidate-appointed scrutineers. Almost five million of these papers have now reached the Central Senate Scrutiny centres in each state, where the detailed and complex process of capturing and validating hundreds of millions of preferences is underway.
“While some Senate positions are known now, the full Senate count is always a reasonably lengthy process,” said Pope.
“Final positions won’t be known until the full distribution of preferences some weeks after election day.”
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