Beyond the speeches, NSW count continues

The winners of some of the state's tightest electoral races might not be formally declared for another three weeks, NSW officials say.

But the vast majority of lower house votes cast in this election will be in by Sunday evening.

"All first-preference votes at polling places were counted last night," NSW Electoral Commission spokesman Richard Carroll said on Sunday.

"Today they're going to start check-counting those first-preference votes, and in addition they'll be entering the iVotes for each area, the pre-poll votes and the postal votes.

"By the end of today, assuming all those three are in, that's most of the votes."

For most lower house seats the results are already known - but a full distribution of preferences will be required to determine the winners in a small handful of seats.

That cannot happen until the postal vote deadline passes at 6pm on Wednesday.

Gosford, Strathfield, and The Entrance are considered very close.

ABC election analyst Antony Green counts Lismore among that number.

As for the 21 upper house seats in contention this year, first-preference votes above the line were all counted at polling places on election night.

"It'll be clear in the case of about 19 seats who's got them," Mr Carroll said.

"But we won't have that until sometime next week."

At some point between April 18 and 21, having data from all ballot papers, officials will be able to "press the button" to finalise the distribution of preferences.

At that point, outcomes for all seats will be known.