Clive Palmer's application to suspend counting at two polling booths in his Queensland seat of Fairfax has been thrown out of the federal court.
Palmer, who has questioned the integrity of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), wanted an injunction to stop counting in Fairfax after a sorting error during election night meant 760 votes were recorded as being from the Buderim polling booth instead of Coolum Beach.
The AEC argued that the anomaly made no difference to the first-preference votes already recorded or the two-party preferred tally.
Federal court judge John Dowsett ruled against granting an injunction on Monday, but ordered the electoral commission to sort the votes at each booth again and label them correctly.
He reserved his judgment on the costs.
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Palmer, of the Palmer United party, was 362 votes ahead of Liberal National party candidate Ted O'Brien on Tuesday morning. Counting continues in the seat.
Major party MPs have defended the AEC against Palmer's attack.
Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor said the Australian electoral system was one of the fairest in the world.
"Mr Palmer, of course, knows a few lawyers and he understands courts can intervene if there is improper or unlawful conduct," O'Connor said on Tuesday.
"The best thing for him to do, if he does have a legitimate concern, is to take that course rather than just make accusations without substantiating them."
Parliamentary secretary designate Simon Birmingham said he had always found the AEC to be "incredibly careful, incredibly methodical and beyond reproach when it comes to how they undertake the count".
"I know what it's like to be on the wrong side of a close race," he told Sky News, saying he'd once lost a lower house seat by just 108 votes.
"But I never claimed that there were any irregularities in that count. I accepted the result was fair and square."
