With the government's majority in the parliament hanging by a thread, everyone's been closely watching the count in the final Queensland seat of Herbert. Well today the vote came to an end with Labor winning by... EIGHT VOTES!
That's right. After nearly 90,000 single ballots were counted by hand, what separated the two candidates was eight single votes. It doesn't even register as a percentage difference with the Australian Electoral Commission.
Because the margin is less than 100 there is an automatic recount.
Counting in Herbert finished. O'Toole ahead by 8 votes. Division of preferences to come. Less than 100 votes means recount @tsv_bulletin
The stakes are sky-high. If Labor's Cathy O'Toole beats the LNP's Ewen Jones, the government will be left with 76 seats and a majority of just one.
So every single one of the 88,360 formal votes will be counted again. Everyone will be watching because clear majority government is at stake.
