Perth: Pauline Hanson is about to begin her third TV cross of election night and the crowd's energy is waning.
"Keep them bobbing, keep them bobbing," James Ashby, Hanson's mercurial chief-of-staff, yells at the One Nation supporters behind her clutching corflutes.
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"Keep the enthusiasm up!"
The man often described as the party's puppet master is waving his hands in the air, trying to rev up the party faithful gathered at Melville Bowls Club in Perth's southern suburbs.
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The early results may show One Nation receiving just 5 per cent of the WA vote, but it's important everyone look like they're having the time of their life.
"Keep the signs up, keep the crowds around her - it looks better on TV," Ashby says.
"Perception is reality."
In fact, the mood is bleak. This party feels more like a wake than a celebration.Â
The party's ramshackle campaign was epitomised by election day in Kalgoorlie, where posters promoting the One Nation candidate misspelt the town as Kagoorlie.Â
Volunteers in orange shirts - "I trust Pauline" scrawled on their backs - stare at the TV election coverage clutching pints of beer. Defeated candidates wander around looking lost. Plastic bowls filled with cheese, jatz crackers and salami slices sit largely uneaten.
Outside, by the bowling greens, a couple of ABC reporters and camera people hover by the door. They've been banned.
Hanson's hero, Donald Trump, recently blocked unfriendly media outlets from a press briefing and now she's doing the same.Â
When Hanson enters the club there's a genuine eruption of applause. Anyone who has seen her in action will attest to the electric energy between Hanson and her supporters.
Things quickly start going wrong. Hanson's ear piece is playing up and she is struggling to hear the questions beyond the static.
She can make out enough to know she's being asked about the party's preference deal with the Liberal Party.
Like a few days earlier - when she backtracked on comments questioning vaccination - Hanson admits she got it wrong.
"Doing the deal with the Libs has done damage to us, in all honesty. It was a mistake,"Â she says.
"We are really going to have to have a good look at this because all I heard all day leading up to this election was 'why are you sending your preferences to the Liberal Party?'"
The sound quality worsening, Hanson gives up and tells Sky News she's off to spend time with her supporters.
By 10pm Labor leader Mark McGowan has claimed victory and most people have disappeared into the night - including Ashby.
On her travels through WA, Hanson was feted wherever she went, begged for selfies, told to keep fighting the good fight. She dominated the newspapers and TV bulletins.Â
It's easy to understand how you could expect all that adoration, all that attention, to translate into into an uprising on election day. But it didn't happen.
Perception, it turns out, can be a long way from reality.Â
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