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Australian Electoral Commission
Declaring the poll: Find out the declaration tests that must be met to declare a House of Representatives result formally.
Australia’s much-admired, manual system of federal elections has one of the most complex and time-consuming counting operations in the world. While it can at times require patience, the federal election counting process delivers integrity to the results, concentrating on accuracy in a highly transparent manner.
Within AEC walls, election night is considered the halfway mark of a federal election, and for good reason. While election night will see approximately 20-25 million ballot papers counted, this is an indicative count, and what follows is:
It’s not just a matter of more AEC staff resulting in a quicker count. It is often the case that at the end of each day all votes in the AEC’s possession have been counted - transport takes time and we are guided by the principle of “right, not rushed”.
Key counting processes explained in simple terms.
The AEC acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.