Yet another Australian. I have scrutineered for the Australian Labor Party in Federal, State and Council elections for more the the past twenty five years. The election officials in fact do a Two Party Preferred or as the recent Queensland state election called it, Two Candidate Preferred count immediately after the first preference count.
The official in charge of the polling place phones the count in to the Australian Electoral Commission or the Electoral Commission of Queensland after each count is complete.
We scrutineers also phone the results back to our candidates.
If you are good enough and pay attention you can get an indication of preference flows while the first preference count is being done. Which is why if you watch the election coverage on television the people from the political parties can say they have an indication of preference flows before the official counts come in.
Of course then all the votes are taken back to the central polling office and they start counting from scratch on the Monday.
