Support for Nick Xenophon came from the strangest of places on polling day.
As he pulled up on an ostentatious three-wheeled motorcycle to vote in the seat of Sturt, where one of his candidates challenged Christopher Pyne, a woman handing out Liberal Party how-to-vote forms smiled and yelled, "We love you Nick!" 
Meanwhile in the seat of   Mayo, where polls suggest Xenophon Team candidate Rebekha Sharkie could win over the Liberal incumbent Jamie Briggs, a former state Liberal Party leader, Martin Hamilton-Smith, threw his support behind the NXT.
"I think Jamie, apart from actively helping to rip Holden down and the automotive industry in SA, was very unhelpful on submarines and frigates," Mr Hamilton-Smith said, the ABC reported.
"I think Rebekha's a good candidate for   Mayo, I live in   Mayo so I want a candidate that's going to stick up for SA and the local district and I think she's the right person," he said.
Polling day must have been a miserable experience for Mr Briggs. It wasn't just the rain, nor even the threat posed by Ms Sharkie. When he turned up to cast his own vote Mr Briggs, who lost his frontbench position after what is coyly referred to as a "late night incident" in a Hong Kong bar last   November, was accosted by a voter. "Do you regret sending that photo of that lady to everybody Mr Briggs?" the woman asked as the press and voters looked on. "Do you wish you didn't do it?"
Back in Sturt, Mr Xenophon appeared in good spirits at the end of the long campaign. His team's presence was as strong as that of the major parties at polling booths in key seats and polls continued to indicate his party could expect to win three, or perhaps even four, South Australian Senate seats as well as the possibility of victory in   Mayo.
Despite the polling, Mr Xenophon continued to downplay the chances of his team holding balance of power in a hung parliament, offering to bet a bottle Grange against such an outcome.
He rejected criticism for his refusal to declare which party his team might support in the event of a hung parliament.
"Malcolm Turnbull will be returned with a reduced majority, we will work with him constructively, but we will drive a hard bargain over the things that matter."
Throughout the campaign Mr Xenophon has flagged government support of manufacturing and gambling reform as key issues for the NXT, and declared scepticism for free trade deals.
He noted that the major parties had been so threatened by his insurgency that in Sturt Labor had directed preferences towards the Liberals ahead of his candidate Matthew Wright.
"Throughout this whole campaign it is almost as though the major parties have been at a table shouting at each other, berating each other, but underneath the table they have been playing footsies. In this seat it is almost as though the Labor Party is protecting Chris Pyne."