Why we may not find out the election result tonight
There’s a strong chance we won’t find out who has won the election tonight if the results are close.
All votes cast today will be counted tonight, along with the majority of pre-poll ballots submitted in the previous two weeks.
But postal votes won’t be available for the Australian Electoral Commission to begin counting until Sunday afternoon.
While Labor is hoping to cinch a sweeping victory, there’s every possibility there won’t be a clear outcome tonight if results are close.
If that’s the case, it could be days until Australia has a new prime minister named.
Victorian state manager for the Australian Electoral Commission, Nye Coffee, told 3AW it could be up to 13 days before we have an election result.
“If it’s really close we might have to wait the 13 days until all the postal votes are back,” he said.
There were 2.7 million applications for postal voting.
Mr Coffee says the postal vote percentage this election is “much larger than what we’ve had in any previous election”.
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Image: Nine News