Whether by design or mistake, a record number of Australians have cut themselves out of the political debate by casting informal votes.
In what appears to be a new record, by Sunday afternoon a total of 618,435 voters had delivered informal votes.
That's 5.64% of all votes cast - a rise of 1.69% on the 2007 election, although with counting continuing, that figure could change.
Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) spokesman Phil Diak said the informal voting rate did appear higher this time, although there was no information at this stage to say why.
"The AEC, as a matter of course, does conduct a review of the informal ballot papers, looks at all the ballot papers, after each federal election," he said.
ABC electoral analyst Antony Green said this was the highest percentage of informal votes since 1984, when the rate hit 6.3%. In the 1983 election the rate was 2.1%.
Overall, informal voting appears to be on the rise, running at 3.2% for the House of Representatives in 1996, 3.8% in 1998, 4.8% in 2001, 5.2% in 2004 and 4% in 2007.
In the lead-up to the Saturday's election, former Labour leader turned reporter Mark Latham urged voters to cast an informal vote as a protest against the major parties.
Mr Latham insisted the high informal vote was really down to voter disillusionment and disengagement.
"Don't forget all the media criticism about the nature of the campaign, very little policy difference, very little that was worthwhile for the Australian people, and their response was a bigger informal vote, a bigger protest vote with the Greens," he told Sky News.
"Probably you'd find a bigger donkey vote and a majority of people saying if this was voluntary voting, I wouldn't go and turn up because it's not worthwhile."
The AEC defines an informal vote as an unmarked ballot paper, one not initialled by a polling place official and which may not be authentic, one not filled out correctly or one where the voter identifies him or herself.
That includes ballots marked with just the figure one or with ticks or crosses.
Ballot papers featuring the voter's political wit or wisdom are not necessarily informal, provided it's numbered correctly. The AEC advises voters that it's unwise to run the risk of having their vote excluded by writing on the ballot paper.
For some unknown reason, voters in the NSW electorate of Reid, formerly held by Labour veteran Laurie Ferguson, have recorded a very high rate of informal voting - more than 11% in 2001 and 2004 and 7% in 2007.
Curiously, that's followed Mr Ferguson to his new seat of Werriwa this election, with 7353 voters (10.59%) casting an informal ballot.
