Both Labor candidates are battling Greens opponents for the fifth and final seat in their electorates, following the March 15 poll.

Electoral Commissioner Julian Type said yesterday preferences would be provisionally distributed tomorrow but the deadline for postal votes was 10am on Tuesday, so could not be formally done until then.

"But we know that we are going to have to distribute very big surpluses around the state so we are proposing to do that on Monday," he said.

"Basically to get ahead of the game."

After the preference distribution, candidates will be excluded from the bottom up.

The distribution should be finished by Thursday or Friday, to give a final result.

In Bass, sitting Labor ministers Michelle O'Byrne and Mr Wightman, plus the three other Labor candidates, have a total of 1.40 quotas.

The five Greens candidates in Bass have a total of 0.76 of a quota.

So it is possible through the distribution of preferences that Ms O'Byrne (who has more votes than Mr Wightman but not a quota) and Mr Wightman each get more than 0.76 of a quota and Mr Booth is excluded, and Labor gets two members in Bass.

The Liberals in Bass have 3.43 quotas, meaning the party will have at least three members in the Northern electorate.

Another interesting contest is the tussle in Lyons between Mr Llewellyn and sitting Greens member Tim Morris for the fifth seat in that electorate.

Mr Llewellyn (5259 votes) has more votes than Mr Morris (5132 votes) and so looks more likely to defeat the sitting Greens member than for the same thing to happen in Bass.