Jacqui Lambie should know mid-week whether she will return to the Senate

The Australian Electoral Commission expects to know mid-week who will represent Tasmania in the Senate. Read the latest on the count.

Jacqui Lambie, Richard Colbeck, Bailey Falls are all Tasmanian candidates vying for the sixth and final Senate seat.

The nervous wait continues for Jacqui Lambie with the make-up of the Senate to be decided on preferences in a race still too close to call.

Ms Lambie is competing for the sixth Senate spot with the Liberal’s Richard Colbeck and the Labor Party’s Bailey Falls.

Observers say the race is tight and come down to preferences which are difficult to predict.

Australian Electoral Commission state manager and electoral officer for Tasmania Hannah Brown is optimistic the Tasmanian results for the Senate will be known mid-week.

Australian Electoral Officer for Tasmania Hannah Brown speaks to the media in Hobart on April 22, 2022.

She said the counting of just under 390,000 Senate ballot papers was expected to be completed on Friday with the distribution of preferences likely on Wednesday.

“We’re going to have some administrative work to do to just reconcile any discrepancies and make sure we’re good to go for the distribution of preferences,” Ms Brown said.

“That background work will occur on Monday.

“We’re just not certain of the date for the declaration of the poll but I’d say, by the end of next week we’ll have clarity and hopefully (by) mid-week.”

Ms Brown described the counting as running “very smoothly”.

“It’s been very smooth and all participants have been very cooperative,” she said.

The Senate counting is more complicated and takes longer than the House of Representatives.

“What happens with Senate ballot papers, is that the Senate process takes longer because we have the scanning and data entry component that we don’t do with the House of Representatives ballot papers,” Ms Brown said.

Senator Jacqui Lambie is competing for the sixth Senate spot which is still undecided. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“We do that for the Senate because the distribution of preferences process is so complex that we use a computer program to do that for us.

“The Senate papers have to be counted by hand first, so they’re counted in polling places on polling night and then they’re all counted a second time by hand in our count centres.

“And then, they’re also into the central scrutiny centre for that scanning and data entry.”

Ms Brown said if the counting is completed mid-week it would be “roughly on a par with the timing from 2022”.

A switch is flicked and the preferences are distributed.

“Once that’s ready to go, that actually just involves pressing a button and the computer works out the distribution using that program.

Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck places his vote on Federal Election Day. Picture: Simon Sturzaker

“It is amazing and it’s really cool to watch.

“It’ll show up gradually who’s been elected based on who’s quoted in the field first and then where their excess votes go.”

The Labor Party has 2.47 quotas, Liberals 1.6, Greens 1.1, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation .36 and Ms Lambie .50.

Twelve parties contested the half Senate election and it is unclear where preferences will go though it is expected Mr Colbeck will pick up those from One Nation.

Labor ran an exceptional campaign winning four of the five House of Representative seats in Tasmania and some observers say the Liberal’s vote “tanked” and Ms Lambie lost votes by turning against the salmon industry and being “obstructionist” in the Senate.

Originally published as Jacqui Lambie should know mid-week whether she will return to the Senate