Fisher by-election: Electoral commissioner Kay Mousley grants Liberal Party's request for recount of votes

A re-count of votes in the Fisher by-election in South Australia will begin this morning after Labor's Nat Cook claimed victory over the Liberals' Heidi Harris by 23 votes on Saturday.

The Liberals have raised concerns about whether ballots marked with crosses as well as numbers should be considered as valid.

Electoral Commissioner Kay Mousley said the re-count was approved to remove any doubt of a fair result.

"I think for transparency reasons it's best that we give a recount," she said.

"It is a close outcome and this way there can be no doubt in anyone's mind that we have got the right result."

She said the Liberals were concerned with some of the formality decisions.

"So we will go back through all of those informal ballot papers to ensure that there has been a determination made and it quite will be that we still won't agree, but that's fine," Ms Mousley said.

"We know the provisions of the electoral act and what is formal and what's not.

"So we'll discuss those on a case by case basis to ensure that everyone is comfortable that we've looked at the papers again and given due consideration to all those that might have been excluded from the count originally."

Political commentator Dr Clem Macintyre told 891 ABC Adelaide this morning the Liberals had nothing to lose by asking for a recount.

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Fisher by-election: Electoral commissioner Kay Mousley grants Liberal Party's request for recount of votes

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