Nicolette Boele and Gisele Kapterian’s legal teams will each begin re-scrutinising 792 votes cast in the 2025 federal election later this month as part of a court challenge to determine whether the Australian Electoral Commission correctly determined Bradfield’s winner.
Boele was declared the member on 4 June by a slim margin of 26 votes, defeating Kapterian, the Liberal party’s candidate, after a month-long count. The seat had been held by the Liberal party since its creation in 1949.
In July, the New South Wales Liberal party confirmed it would launch a court challenge to determine the validity of a “small number of ‘line ball’ ballots” reserved and considered by the electoral commission during its recount.
The federal court ordered on Friday that Boele and Kapterian’s lawyers be given three days each between 10am and 5pm to examine the ballots, which will be numbered 1 to 792, and provide reasons for any they dispute.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
The legal teams will each be given another day in September to re-examine the ballots before they will be allowed to agree or dispute any of the issues raised by the other team.
A final list of the disputed ballots will be submitted to the court by 25 September.
The court ordered strict rules for both legal teams to examine the ballots under the watchful eye of a court official.
Neither team will be allowed to photograph or photocopy the ballots, remove them from the inspection room nor mark the ballots in any way.
The hearing to determine Bradfield’s final vote count is scheduled in Sydney on 2 October 2025, and expected to last one day.
The nail-biting contest in Bradfield between the teal independent, Boele, and Kapterian delivered twists and turns through the four-week recount.
The AEC had initially said Kapterian won on the first distribution of preferences by eight votes, before a recount was ordered. The final result followed rulings on ballot formality.
At the end of the recount, Boele had 50.01% of the total vote, ahead of Kapterian’s 49.99%, or a margin of 26 votes.
Kapterian’s petition to the high court in July claimed 56 votes for the Liberal candidate had wrongfully been rejected by the AEC while 95 votes for Boele had been wrongfully accepted.
The case was referred to the federal court earlier in August for a “just and efficient resolution”.
Within 40 days of the election writ being returned, any candidate or elector from the seat can “petition” its result. That process involves a formal pleading to the court of disputed returns. For national elections, that usually means the high court.
Only 50 challenges to House of Representatives results have been considered by the court of disputed returns since 1907.
Kapterian had been appointed a shadow assistant minister in Sussan Ley’s Coalition frontbench.
