What's the smallest difference between the winner and the next party in any state or federal election in Australia. Interested in both percentage and absolute count.
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Are you interested in just margins for one candidate winning over another candidate, or also cases where the order in which candidate elimination involves a small difference?– Andrew GrimmMay 10, 2019 at 7:55
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@AndrewGrimm I'm interested in one candidate Winnie over the other after the preferences are tallied. I'm not sure what you meant for the other scenario– user1605665May 10, 2019 at 8:02
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1 Answer
The smallest margin ever recorded (according to the Australian Parliament) was seven votes in 1914. From the link:
John Lynch (ALP) defeated Alfred Conroy (LP) by just seven votes (13,162 to 13,155) to win the seat of Werriwa (NSW) at the 5 September 1914 election. There have been contests where the margin was less but in both cases the result was challenged and the election declared void.
In more recent times, at the 2016 federal election, the seat of Herbert in QLD which was lost by incumbent Ewen Jones to Cathy O'Toole by just 37 votes.
