After the shock discovery of unopened ballots from the South Australian election that were not counted, a surprising result has been returned from a final recount.
The Electoral Commission of South Australia conducted an urgent recount on Friday after discovering a batch of votes that were, somehow, not included in the original count.
The major issue, despite the fact that ballots had been missed in the first place, was the narrow win in Narungga.
One Nation’s Chantelle Thomas had won the seat by a margin of just 58 votes.
In total, 81 votes that were not counted had been discovered.
After the recount on Friday, the result for Ms Thomas, the One Nation MP who had been sworn in for Narungga, likely came as a reassuring surprise.
One Nation actually secured a larger margin to claim the win, with Ms Thomas securing 73 more votes than her Liberal opponent, Tania Stock.
It will be a big sigh of relief from the Electoral Commission too, who would have been forced to navigate a legal minefield if the incorrect winner had been declared and sworn in.
