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One Nation has retained the South Australian seat of Narungga following a count of ballots that were missed on election day. While the outcome likely avoids a court battle questions continue to be asked about how the blunder was allowed to happen in the first place.

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00:02A closely watched count in a tightly contested seat.
00:05After an hour of poring over 81 missing ballots,
00:09One Nation's Chantelle Thomas was again confirmed as the new member for the York Peninsula seat of Narunga.
00:14It's just finally good to have all this behind us,
00:15and I'm looking forward to Chantelle taking her position and representing the people of Narunga.
00:20Of the 81 missing votes, 46 went to One Nation and 30 to the Liberal Party,
00:25increasing Miss Thomas's narrow victory margin to 74 votes.
00:29This has been an incredibly close contest and I respect the outcome
00:34and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the community for their unwavering support.
00:39The count means the Electoral Commission won't have to petition a court to change the result,
00:44but it doesn't mean they'll escape scrutiny over how the votes were lost in the first place.
00:49It's not even necessarily about the seat of Narunga.
00:52This speaks to a broader concern about some of the processes that
00:55really voters across the state had to endure at this election.
00:58Those issues including technical glitches, long queues and payment delays for workers
01:03are set to be examined by an independent review.
01:05Those causes for concern and those matters will importantly be aerated in a review that will take place.
01:15The Liberal Party hasn't yet ruled out taking the Narunga election result to the Court of Disputed Returns.
01:20But any legal challenge could be a costly and high-risk endeavour.
01:24In the meantime, they'll have to make do with just five MPs in the lower house.
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