A reassessment of some ballot papers was set to take place by 22.00 on Thursday evening following the refusal by centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi to accept defeat in the elections. Around 43,000 ballot papers for the chamber of deputies have been contested, along with around 40,000 for the senate. Contested ballot papers have some irregularity such as crossings out, unclear pencil marks and scribbles that caused the polling station officials to invalidate the vote. Around two million papers were written on or left blank and do not fall into this contested category as they were immediately annulled. After being rechecked by officials at the 60,000 polling stations, the contested ballot papers, along with a written explanation of why each one was not accepted, will be submitted for scrutiny to a national central electoral office, which has the final say. The results will then be communicated to the chamber of deputies.

The centre-left coalition won the chamber by a margin of 25,000 votes and therefore the defeated centre-right is hopeful that recounting the contested ballot papers will change the balance. Early indications have shown this is unlikely to be the case.