BRENDAN Moylan will officially become the Northern Tablelands MP on Friday, July 12 after the full count of votes in the June 22 by-election was completed on Tuesday.
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Northern Tablelands electoral manager Peter Dooley electronically filed the papers at 10am on July 9 from the electoral office in Beardy Street, Armidale.
Mr Dooley and his team counted 45,934 votes in eight days.
"There were about 18 people working Monday to Friday in the office, completing data entry for the by-election," Mr Dooley said.
"We officially finished counting all papers on Monday, although we were still receiving postal votes several days later."
These included one ballot paper from Hong Kong, one from London and one from the United States.
But those votes will not change the outcome of the by-election; Mr Moylan won 81.93 per cent of the vote, making the Northern Tablelands one of the safest seats in NSW.
It was the first time in 11 years a by-election was held in the electorate and followed the resignation of Adam Marshall, who had held the seat since May, 2013.
Mr Moylan received the greatest number of votes in Armidale and Moree.
The Nationals candidate secured 5012 votes from the nine polling stations in Moree. In Armidale, he secured 7684 votes from the town's nine polling stations, including at Uralla Memorial Hall.
Final tallies
There was daylight between Mr Moylan's total number of votes and those of Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate Ben Smith, who received 5229 votes, or 11.38 per cent of the count.
Greens candidate and Armidale Regional Cr Dorothy Robinson drew third, with 4211 votes, or 9.17 per cent of the count.
Early birds who cast their vote before polling day were in the majority (23,489) compared with 21,232 who waited until June 22 to cast their vote.
Across Australia, 12 eligible voters for the by-election cast their ballot in Darwin, 14 in Brisbane, three in Adelaide, three in Hobart and three in Perth.
More than 97 per cent of registered voters exercised their democratic right at the ballot box, with less than one per cent of informal votes counted.
Now all voting has concluded, the election writ will be returned on Friday, July 12, allowing Mr Moylan to be officially sworn in as Northern Tablelands MP, the fifth since the electorate was created in 1981.
