Macquarie on a knife edge as margin drops to 50 votes

UPDATE 6.20pm: Another update from the AEC has the margin narrowing to just 12 votes, with Liberal candidate Sarah Richards still in the lead.

UPDATE 5.15pm: Liberal candidate Sarah Richards has regained the lead in Macquarie by a slim 23 votes in the latest figures posted by the Australian Electoral Commission. Eighty-six per cent of the vote has now been counted, with more postal votes to come plus thousands of absentee votes yet to be counted.

10.30am: The seat of Macquarie remains on a knife edge today (Monday) as the margin between the two major party candidates slipped to just 312 votes.

The lead has swapped several times since polls closed at 6pm on Saturday, and Labor incumbent Susan Templeman currently holds the slim lead over the Liberal Party's Sarah Richards.

Both candidates said late on Saturday that the result at that time was too close to call.

A total of 83.96 per cent of the vote in Macquarie had been counted at 9.45am today, with Ms Templeman polling 50.18 per cent (43,692) and Ms Richards 49.82 per cent (43,380) of the two candidate preferred vote.

Ms Templeman had been leading by more than 600 votes yesterday (Sunday), and thousands of postal and absentee votes have yet to be counted.

The seat includes the Local Government Areas (LGA) of Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains, and the vote has shown the different demographics of the two neighbours; Ms Templeman took every booth in the Blue Mountains bar Mt Riverview after preferences, while Ms Richards won every booth in the Hawkesbury bar St Albans and South Windsor.

A result is expected to be delivered in the next couple of days.