The Greens' presence in the Senate is in danger of slipping to its lowest point since 2010, with two Greens senators on opposite sides of the country locked in cliffhanger contests.
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If the count in Tasmania and Western Australia does not break the way of the party, the Greens will return to Parliament with three fewer senators than when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called the double dissolution election.
But if Tasmanian senator Nick McKim and WA's Rachel Siewert win, Greens Leader Richard Di Natale will have only lost one member of his team - Robert Simms in South Australia.
Dr Di Natale has kept a low profile since the election, issuing just two media releases since July 2 on the Northern Territory juvenile justice scandal and the terrorist atrocity in Nice.
The results in Tasmania and WA are expected as soon as Wednesday morning, with poll experts split on how each race will finish.
Senator McKim is in a battle with former Liberal minister Richard Colbeck for the 12th and final seat in Tasmania.
Tasmanian psephologist Kevin Bonham said the contest was exceedingly tight but he has forecast Senator McKim to hold on because the fourth on the Liberal ticket, Senator David Bushby, would "soak up" above-the-line preferences before they flowed to Senator Colbeck.
But Jody Fassina of Insight Strategy, a former long-term adviser to two Labor senators, said Senator Colbeck was almost 2000 primary votes ahead of Senator McKim and he should enjoy a healthy preference flow because three times as many votes went to right-wing micro parties as left-wing parties in Tasmania.
In WA, Senator Siewert is narrowly ahead of National Party candidate Kado Muir, a former Green himself, in a race too close to call.
This week it became clear that Janet Rice, the second Green on the ticket in Victoria behind the party leader, will survive in the final seat there.
Dr Di Natale's office confirmed that a post-election campaign review will be undertaken.
The Greens spent much of the campaign focused on what appeared to be winnable seats in Victoria and NSW but fell well short in Higgins and Grayndler yet came close in Melbourne Ports and Batman and made inroads in Wills.
Dr Di Natale has suggested the party's backslide in the Senate was due to a perception among voters lodging a protest vote that the Greens have now joined the ranks of one of the "major parties".
In NSW, the Greens pulled just 7 per cent of the primary vote, enough to win a quota in a double dissolution election and ensure the return of Lee Rhiannon, but in a normal half-Senate election that would likely not be enough.
Fairfax Media reported in March some concern inside the Greens that Dr Di Natale and Senator Rhiannon had been "naive" to sign up to Senate voting reforms when the Coalition was likely headed to a double dissolution.
But a number of party operatives told Fairfax Media there had been no recriminations over the election result.
"It would take a pretty weak party not to go through with backing your own policy [on Senate reform] because you might lose a senator," said a source.
Another senior Green said: "There will be people who would want us more focused on our Senate message but no one's saying we're out of the game. There is no talk about the job of Richard Di Natale."
