There was an argument over the table's location in the room and scrutineers were constantly reminded to stand back from the table, keep their hands off the table and to give VEC staff room to move. Scrutineers were also told to keep up with the VEC staff or the count would take too long. Challenges were frequently made on ballots where numbers were illegible or could be considered a different number. For example, a European-style 1 could be considered a 7, thus making a vote informal.

Votes cast on election day and some postal votes had already been counted giving Liberal candidate Clem Newton-Brown a lead with 50.92 per cent of the vote, according to the VEC. Mr Newton-Brown was lagging on Saturday night but pulled ahead when the postal votes were counted.

At lunchtime on Monday Labor's candidate Neil Pharaoh was 88 votes ahead of the Greens with 5444 votes, not including those still being counted. But if the Greens pull ahead on the primary count in early and absentee votes, the Labor ballots will have to be re-counted for a two-party preferred between Greens and Liberal, a highly unusual situation.

With 30.3 per cent of votes cast early, there are nearly 10,000 votes to count this week. The Prahran electorate has 44,075 people enrolled to vote.

The campaign for Prahran has been tense and hostile compared to other electorates, with arguments on election day over bunting and posters around the district, official complaints about name calling, and animosity between volunteers at polling booths.