Louise Staley is still marginally ahead as rechecking continued on Friday.

She leads Labor’s Sarah De Santis by 71 votes, 20,090 to 20,019.

That tally updated by the Victorian Electoral Commission at 4.30pm on Friday afternoon, with 41,574 or 87.02 per cent of votes rechecked in the district of Ripon.

3433 or 8.26 per cent of votes were informal at that point in time.

Friday is the last day for postal votes to be received by the VEC.

Rechecking and counting will continue at the weekend, with a winner to potentially be announced in the coming days. 

Earlier – Thursday

Voters in the district of Ripon will have to remain patient, with still no outcome of who will represent them in parliament for the next four years.

As of 3.30pm on Thursday, the Victorian Electoral Commission showed Liberal Party’s Louise Staley holding on to a slim 67-vote lead over Labor’s Sarah De Santis.

21813 or 45.66 per cent of the votes had been rechecked at that point in time, with 40,065 votes counted in total.

Ms Staley had received 20,066 votes on the two-party preferred vote, just 263 short of of her winning total in the 2014 election.

As counting continued throughout the week, Ms Staley and Ms De Santis’ votes ebbed and flowed, exchanging the lead on multiple occasions. 

At one point on Thursday morning with 39.57 per cent of votes rechecked Ms De Santis was ahead by just 10 votes of Ms Staley.

In such a close count, it is disappointing to see 7.73 per cent of informal votes in Ripon, about two per cent more than the statewide average. 

A winner of the seat is unlikely to be determined until next week, with postal votes still allowed to be received by the VEC until Friday. 

About 365 postal votes are expected to be counted in Ripon.

“Preference distributions for seats where no candidate has won an absolute majority of first preference votes, are scheduled to occur from next Monday, December 3 to Wednesday, December 5,” a VEC spokesperson said.

“If recounts are required for any seats, these will occur mid to late next week. At this stage, we cannot forecast when a result for Ripon will be declared.”

The process of counting votes is ongoing but the count is expected to go right down to the wire, with every single vote having an impact.

“Absent votes (votes cast outside a voter’s home District) and provisional votes (votes cast at a voting centre by someone who was not enrolled by the close of rolls, but who enrolled and voted at the same time) were being counted on Thursday,” the VEC spokesperson said.

“Re-checks are also continuing. Re-checks are normal procedure, where all ballot papers are re-examined and counted again.”

Given the tight nature of the seat at the moment, the VEC said a recount is a possibility but not a certainty.

“If a result is extremely close, a recount may be ordered by the election manager or electoral commissioner. Candidates can also request a recount, but the decision to accept that request is at the discretion of the election manager,” the spokesperson said.

“At this stage we cannot comment on whether a recount will be required for Ripon.”