THE counting of 101,101 votes, including a full distribution of preferences from 94 polling booths from the Federal Election on May 21, 2022, has finalised the tally for Wannon and changed the status of the traditionally Liberal held ‘Blue Ribbon’ seat to officially marginal.
Mr Tehan, who has held the seat since 2010, was returned and despite a buffer of +10.2 per cent following the 2019 Federal Election, this time received less than the qualifying 56 per cent to officially retain a comfortable margin.
Mr Tehan’s safety net was smashed with a swing against him of -6.63 per cent in the primary count but tallied +53.92 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote (TCP) after a strong campaign by teal independent candidate, Alex Dyson, who finished with +46.08 per cent of the TCP.
Mr Dyson doubled his first preference votes this election from his first tilt at the seat in 2019, to secure 19.29 per cent of first preference votes with a swing of +9.64 per cent.
However, once vote counting was well underway on election night, it became apparent that as no candidate would be able to secure more than 50 per cent of first preference votes, preferences would need to be tallied.
The 2022 Federal Election has seen major changes in voting habits of electors, with more people applying for postal votes or heading to pre-poll voting centres ahead of election day.
74,255 people voted by telephone, under changes allowing people affected by COVID-19 to cast their vote.
However, the biggest change was the previously predictable staple of the once diehard support base for the major parties, severely dented by the teal independent wave snatching votes across the country.
In Wannon on election night, for the first time in several decades it soon became clear that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) had been pipped at the post for the usual second position, with Gilbert Wilson coming in third after suffering a swing of -6.85 per cent.
A TCP was triggered, but the two-party preferred distribution between the two major parties was also undertaken, resulting in a swing of -1.10 per cent against the Liberal/National Coalition, with a final tally of 59,722 votes (59.07 per cent), that directly correlated in the swing to ALP’s Gilbert Wilson of +1.10 per cent with 41,379 votes (40.93 per cent).
Mr Wilson was the last to be eliminated from the TCP with just under 80 per cent of his second preferences going to Mr Dyson and the remainder to Mr Tehan.
Mr Tehan finished in front by 7933 votes with a final count of 54,517 TCP votes, to Mr Dyson’s 46,584 votes.
Verification of the winner of the seat of Wannon was slightly delayed due to the increased volume of postal votes for the 2022 Federal Election continuing to flow in until the deadline on Friday, June 3, with extended vote counting activity across multiple electorates.
