According to an AAP FactCheck investigation, claims circulating on social media that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) reported 97.7% of votes counted in Peter Dutton's lost seat by May 5, 2025, are false.
The AEC confirmed this figure actually represents "the proportion of counted ballot papers that had also been added to the two-candidate preferred (TCP) count" rather than overall turnout or total votes counted.
At the time the misleading post was published, only 74% of total votes in the Dickson electorate had been tallied, with thousands of declaration votes including postal ballots—which voters have up to 13 days after election day to return—still being processed. This technical misinterpretation led to unfounded allegations of "missing votes" in the outer Brisbane seat that Labor's Ali France won from Dutton after his 24-year tenure.
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