The number of people voting early is up significantly on the 2012 election, with 16,912 people casting their votes at pre-poll centres by the end of Wednesday.
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At this stage in the 2012 campaign, 11,577 pre-poll votes had been cast.
If people continue casting their vote at the current rate, there could be as many as 90,000 votes cast before election day, with most of those counted on election night once polls close. That could mean more than a third of votes counted quickly on election night, October 15.
The final result is not expected until the following Saturday, October 22, with the likelihood that a decision on who forms government will come down to the final seat, and perhaps the final votes.
But the election night count is a good predictor, correctly allocating 16 of the 17 seats at the 2012 election.
Electoral Commissioner Phillip Green said unlike the federal Senate, the ACT commission would do an interim distribution of preferences from the electronic votes counted on election night, which took some of the uncertainty out of the result.
"It's a very strong indication," he said. "It's like a big random sample, but like all random samples it can change as we get more and more votes in the count."
On election night, the commission counts all electronic votes, including pre-poll electronic votes (about 80 per cent of pre-poll votes are cast electronically) plus electronic votes cast on the day, with the six electronic voting centres also open on election day.
Paper ballot papers are scanned from Monday, October 17.
Most postal votes will be counted on the Monday and Tuesday after the election but because voters have until Friday, October 21, to return postal votes, the final count of postal votes cannot happen until after that. Postal votes are also higher at this point in the campaign than in 2012, with the Electoral Commission sending out 13,912 postal voting packs so far, compared with 9843 at this point in the last campaign.
Mr Green said depending how long it took to scan the final papers, a final result was expected at some stage on Saturday afternoon, October 22.
There are 283,162 Canberrans enrolled to vote. A 90 per cent turnout, which is typical, would see about 255,000 votes cast.
The complexity of the Hare-Clark voting system, with five politicians elected from each of five seats, means preferences play a crucial role in the outcome. In this year's election, Labor and Liberal are almost assured of winning 10 seats each (two each in each electorate), with the tussle coming down to the final seat in each electorate.
