Vote counting in the Fleurieu electorates of Finniss and Hammond finally resumed late yesterday with declaration votes added to the tally.

Declaration votes include those taken from people in places such as nursing homes and hospitals and unable to attend a polling place on election day.

In Finniss, 1939 votes were added to the overall tally with 47.4% of the total vote counted.

Liberal David Basham won 979 of these first preference votes, the ALP’s Amy Hueppauff picked up 491 and Independent Lou Nicholson 272.

David Basham currently has 4833 first preference votes in total, Amy Heuppauff has 2933 and Lou Nicholson 2669.

The Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA) is currently showing a Two Party Preferred Vote (after preferences are distributed) of 53.1% to Lou Nicholson and 46.9% to David Basham. 

However, if at the end of the count the ALP has continued to poll in second place on primary votes then Lou Nicholson will be eliminated from the count. 

Her preferences will then be distributed amongst Basham and Heuppauff.

To win, David Basham needs the prepoll and postal votes to mirror the results of the declaration votes.

For Lou Nicholson to win, she needs to overtake Amy Heuppauff on first preference votes. 

The ALP candidate would then be eliminated, and her preference flow should help Nicholson to victory.

Finniss recorded the highest number of pre-poll votes for any electorate, with 60% of votes overall cast before election day.

The Fleurieu App will update the situation as the ECSA releases further results.

The count at 8am this morning

In Hammond, the declaration votes also favoured the sitting Liberal Member, Adrian Pederick (829) over the ALP’s Belinda Owens (405) and Independent Airlie Keen (253).

The Two Party Preferred vote is now sitting at 51.3% to Mr Pederick and 48.7% to Ms Keen.

As in Finniss, the Independent candidate will need the postal and pre-poll vote count to give her more primary votes that the ALP candidate to keep her in the running.

The count at 8am this morning