The table reveals how the Senate count went and how close it was.
After the count of the first preferences, a quota is struck of one-third of the votes plus one. If two candidates get that much, no other candidate can get more so those two are elected. The quota was 65,679 votes. Labor’s Kate Lundy got 83,090, or 1.265 quotas. She was elected.
The Liberal’s Margaret Reid was about 4300 votes (or 2.3 percentage points) shy of a quota. It was her worse vote in the seven elections she has stood in since 1983. In 1984 she got 31.9 per cent — the only other time she has been run to preferences.
Lundy’s over quota of 0.265 or 17,411 votes was distributed as preferences.
That is, all her 83,090 second preferences were counted and distributed at a reduced so they added up to a total of 17,411. Her running mate got all but 900 of them. Ninety of them went to the Liberals’ Margaret Reid. Some went to the Greens, One Nation and others. But that was not enough to give Reid a quota.
The table collates the fate of 10 minor and running-mate candidates, except Labor’s Peter Conway because he stayed in the count till the end on the strength of Lundy’s over-quota. About 3000 votes were distributed. (Excluded candidates’ preferences get distributed at full value.) Still Reid did not get a quota. Then the Green candidates was axed and still Reid was 3400 shy of the quota.
Last, One Nation was axed. When their 10,572 votes were distributed, Reid got a tad over half of them, enough to put her over the quota.
Senator Reid’s comfort margin was a mere 1463 votes, or 0.74 per cent. But that is to be increased when the Electoral Commission distributes all the preferences of Peter Conway, but there is unlikely to be much leakage from Labor to Liberal because a very high percentage of Labor voters vote above the line and the ticket puts the Democrat before the Liberals.
The count reveals a widespread very high percentage of above-the-line voting. For example, less than per cent of Green voters bucked their ticket. As a result the Democrats got 85 per cent of their preferences. One Nation’s preferences split 50-50 Liberal-Labor according to their ticket.