Parliamentarians and wannabes have been eagerly waiting to learn what numbers have come up for them as they prepare to take their chance in the coming election.
As the clock struck noon, blind-folded volunteers across the nation picked numbered balls from a spinning lottery wheel, under the watchful eye of the Australian Electoral Commission.
The process allocates candidates a number, then is repeated to determine the order on the voting ballot.
Inside the Panarcadian Association building in North Melbourne, democracy was ticking on three levels for the electorates of Melbourne, Macnamara and Cooper.
The three-horse race seat of Macnamara, whose margin at the last election was on a knife's edge, saw incumbent Labor MP Josh Burns top the ticket, while Liberal candidate Benson Saulo came fourth.
For Greens challenger Sonya Semmens, who drew third on the ballot, it's not her first rodeo.
"We don't leave anything down to luck," Ms Semmens told AAP after the draw.
"We make sure that when we run a campaign, like we've done here in Macnamara, that we are doing everything we possibly can to talk to as many people, so I feel confident we don't need chance on our side."
The only other candidate to turn up to the draw was first-time political aspirant and One Nation candidate Sean Rubin, who ended up number two on the ballot.
"No one wants to be last on a ballot paper and it's a very exhilarating experience," he said.
Greens leader Adam Bandt drew fifth position on the ballot in the seat of Melbourne while Labor is the highest major party drawing second place and the Liberals drew last place.
Labor will top the ballot for about six million voters after drawing first position in the NSW senate.
First-time candidate Emanie Samira Darwiche watched her party Australia's Voice draw third position at the event in Sydney.
"It's really exciting and I'm happy for the party," she said.
She was joined by fellow candidate Michael O'Neill from the HEART party, who is a regular at ballot draws.
The order can carry weight and candidates at the top of a ballot tend to do better - but only marginally - due to "donkey voting", election analyst Ben Raue said.
"If you're a bit higher up, there will be voters that number ballots from top to bottom, and you might get more of those when the ballot paper is bigger," he said.
The draw also marks the point of no return for party-aligned candidates.
"Those names are going to be locked in and if something embarrassing or bad comes out from the candidate, (the party) is stuck with that person," Mr Raue said.
The federal election is set for May 3 and a record number of people are expected to have their say with first-time voters driving new enrolments.
