The ALP has 40 days to lodge an appeal into the recount which saw Ms Staley returned as the Liberal member in the ultra-marginal seat, which is now officially the closest lower house seat ever recorded in Victorian history.

The previous tightest was 16 votes in Geelong in 1999.

It came after Labor’s Sarah De Santis was initially declared the winner by 31 votes, but a recount saw votes swap to hand Ms Staley the narrowest of wins.

Ms Staley was officially declared successful at 10.30am on Monday morning.

Speaking afterwards she said was firstly gratified that the people of Ripon had given her a second term, but also admitted to relief after a stressful couple of weeks.

She said she would continue to work for all people of Ripon as she had for the past four years vowing to pressure the State Government to make sure all of its commitments are followed through.

She said the $100 million Maryborough hospital upgrade was a top priority.

“It’s clear that the Andrews Labor government was not held in high regard in the country,” Ms Staley said.

“Some of my party’s best results have been in the country and locally I do think there’s a couple of things that were very clear, particularly for those wishing to see forests kept open.

“This was always an extremely marginal seat and I think locals see a lot of the major projects are happening in Melbourne, but not in the country and they are not prepared to swing to Labor.” 

The ALP confirmed it was still looking into the voting.

“On Monday morning we lodged for a formal recount of all votes, we were of the opinion a formal recount had not been performed,” assistant state secretary and ALP deputy campaign manager Kosmos Samaras said.

“Although some scrutiny had been applied we believe full scrutiny of the whole count has not been performed.”

Mr Samaras said the ALP is “confident” votes for minor parties had been appropriately scrutineered but had doubts over votes for Ms Staley and Ms De Santis.

“We were looking for a formal recount from start to finish,” he said.

Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan who spoke on Monday in Bendigo said regardless of the result, the people of Ripon can be assured that would not be forgotten by the State Government.

“We will deliver on each and every one of our election commitments to the community such as local schools, hospital and transport services,” Ms Allan said.

“We will be a government supporting all Victorians no matter where they live.

“I think we’ve seen from the results of a couple of weeks ago, no seat should be taken for granted, be it Bendigo in metro Melbourne or rural Victoria. We fought for every single vote and we will support communities no matter where they live or how they voted.”

A VEC spokesperson confirmed a second recount is not possible, especially since a successful candidate had already been declared.

“The only avenue from here on is to challenge the decision with the Court of Disputed Returns,” the spokesperson said.

"Once it's declared, anyone who wants to challenge that can request that the result be challenged.”

​A petition would have to be filed within 40 days, so the latest date for lodgement with the Supreme Court for the 2018 election would be January 24, 2019.

ABC election analyst Antony Green told The Courier he did not believe electronic voting was the answer to determining close counts.

“There’s nothing wrong with a pencil,” Mr Green said.

“I can see electronic voting coming in for pre-poll voting but it’s too complex in polling day. What if there’s a black out and we lose 350 votes, electronically, you still have issues. 

“The electoral commission, in a close contest, conducts the count to an intensity which should withstand a court challenge.

“Both sides had many watching. Was there something they objected to at the time? In every election there will be small errors, someone might have voted twice, here we have almost 50,000 voters. At some stage you have to accept a result.”

Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.