SLEEPLESS nights await Senate candidates after a closer than anticipated vote for the six Tasmanian seats.
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Both Liberal and Labor are set for at least two seats each, which will return Liberals Richard Colbeck and David Bushby, and Labor's Carol Brown and Catryna Bilyk to Canberra.
The Greens have fallen just short of a quota but Peter Whish-Wilson was confident of taking his seat after a late flurry of votes.
"The big booths in Hobart and Launceston haven't come through yet ... I'd like to know before I go to bed tonight so I can get a good night's sleep."
Liberal aspirant Sally Chandler, third on the party's ticket, is comfortable playing the waiting game despite her party falling short of three quotas.
"I never thought we would know tonight, it's a tight race and I always knew it would be tight," Ms Chandler said.
Senator Colbeck said while the numbers were "pretty tight, the Liberals are the ones in the equation".
The Liberal forestry spokesman is set for a ministry in the Abbott government, although he maintained that decision was "purely and simply up to Tony".
If the Liberals are beaten to the third seat in Tasmania, it could spell the end of their hopes to control the Senate in their own right.
Greens leader Christine Milne said "it's too early to say what's happening in the Senate overall but the Greens will be holding the balance of power between now and next July and we'll do everything in our power to stop Tony Abbott repealing the price on pollution".
The wildcard is the emergence of the Palmer United Party, which scored 7 per cent of the vote, almost half a quota in its own right.
Lead candidate Jacqui Lambie said she'd been campaigning for 10 months which gave her a leg-up in the election.
"When Clive Palmer came on board with his profile and resources, that really pushed us over the line," Ms Thurley said.
Ms Thurley said the result egged her on to prepare for a state election campaign, although her short term priority would be taking down signs.
The disappointment for the Labor Party extended to the Senate, with a result of around two- and-a-quarter quotas made retaining their three seats reliant on an unlikely preference flow.
Senator Lisa Singh said it was hugely disappointing Labor "lost some really good and effective members" but refused to join others in blaming the state government.
"We need to look at perhaps the reasons why, and that's going to take a little bit of time."