A number of tense days are on the cards for Ripon candidates as they wait for all votes to be counted by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
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On Monday evening, 62.4 per cent of the vote had been counted.
This puts Labor's Martha Haylett ahead in first preference by about 400 votes.
A large number of absentee votes, which were sent to Melbourne could be holding up the count.
Some Ballarat residents would have voted absentee so they could vote closer to home.
In the two candidate-preferred vote, Ms Haylett sat at 52.29 per cent compared to Liberal Louise Staley's 47.71 per cent, on Monday evening.
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While Ms Haylett is hopeful the results will swing in her favour, no one is making any claims until an official call. In 2018, the count for Ripon took two weeks to finalise.
"I am holding my breath, I don't want to get ahead of myself," Ms Haylett said.
"I know that four years ago, it was called by the ABC then and then obviously we lost by 15 votes. So we don't want to get ahead of ourselves."
Wendy Lovell, an upper house Liberal member said the seat would be difficult to retain after the redistribution pushed the seat into Labor's favour.
"It was always going to be a very difficult ask for Louise to hold onto that seat and she has worked tirelessly," Ms Lovell said. Ms Staley declined to comment.
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