Herbert tally unknown until next week

Who the winner is in the close battle for the seat of Herbert won't be clear until early next week.

In latest counting LNP MP Ewen Jones is a mere dozen votes ahead of Labor challenger Cathy O'Toole in the north Queensland electorate.

Herbert is the last undecided electorate from the July 2 election and the outcome is a big deal for both government and opposition.

If Herbert goes to the coalition, it will give Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull 77 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. That's one more than an absolute majority and a useful additional margin in the finely balanced parliament.

Spokesman for the Australian Electoral Commission Phil Diak said preliminary scrutiny of all remaining declaration votes was being done on Saturday.

Declaration votes include absentee votes, where a person votes at a booth outside his or her own electorate, and provisional votes, where a person's name can't be found on the electoral roll. In such cases the person signs a declaration of entitlement to vote.

Mr Diak said such votes where checked against the electoral roll in preparation for counting of all remaining votes on Monday. No counting will be done on Sunday.

Monday's count of the remaining votes will provide a seat margin. Then there'll be a full distribution of preferences, as required under the Commonwealth Electoral Act to also confirm the seat margin.

Then, if the margin is still under 100 votes there'll be another full recount to decide the seat outcome.