A month would have passed since the July 2 federal election before voters in the Townsville-based electorate of Herbert could have certainty over who represents them in Canberra.
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But even that certainty may not last long if the losing party, expected to be the Liberal National Party, decides to mount a challenge against the result.
At the close of counting on Friday, Labor's Cathy led LNP incumbent Ewen Jones by just 35 votes on a two-candidate preferred basis, 44,186 to 44,151.
Ms O'Toole has already claimed victory in the seat after her majority increased from eight to 35 after an automatic recount.
The full distribution of preferences was expected to be completed by Friday afternoon, but an Australian Electoral Commission spokeswoman said the process was now expected to last through the weekend.
"There won't be a formal result until at least early next week," she said.
While preferences were taken into account when determining the two-candidate preferred result, by looking at which of the two leading candidates was more highly preferenced on the ballot paper.
The full distribution process formalises that preference vote through a longer process, in which the candidate with the fewest number of first preference votes – in this case Palmer United Party candidate Martin Brewster (315 votes) – and distributing those votes to the remaining candidates.
That process then continues as candidates are knocked out one by one until one of them emerges with an absolute majority of votes.
But the final result could still be further away, if the result was challenged in the Court of Disputed Returns.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull signalled on Thursday a challenge against the result was likely, given some military personnel were unable to vote because of their participation in Exercise Hamel, in South Australia, on polling day.
"I won't say any more about it because it is a legal matter that may come before the courts, but obviously the (Liberal National) party will look at the evidence and form a view about, assuming the final vote were to be adverse, form a view about whether to make an application to the court," he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
"Of course, I imagine if it went the other way, the other side would look at it closely too."
