South Australians head to the polls in the 2026 state election

The scene is set for a big night at Labor HQ — held at the Drive alongside Adelaide Oval.

Staffers are getting everything organised and we expect supporters to start trickling in slowly after the polls close at 6pm.

The premier will also make his way here later in the evening and deliver what is widely expected to be a victory speech.

Inside the venue of Labor’s election function. (ABC News: Eva Blandis)

Reporting by Eva Blandis and Kathryn Bermingham

Coober Pedy local Lindsay Payne showed up to cast his vote today, only to find the polling booth was not where he expected.

Unlike previous elections, the Electoral Commission did not plan any voting services for the outback town today and instead provided early voting on March 14 and 15.

However, many residents said they did not find out about the change until after those dates, leaving them with either a 1,000 kilometre round trip or no opportunity to vote at all.

Coober Pedy residents couldn’t vote today. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

After residents voiced their concerns, the ECSA yesterday announced it would divert a plane heading to flood-affected areas to Coober Pedy to ensure the town could vote.

But the changes flew under Mr Payne’s radar and with the plane packed up and gone, he does not think he will be able to vote.

“I went into town to go and vote, and there wasn’t anybody there,” he said.

“I spoke to my pastor up here too; he told me that the whole town is in a bit of a dizzy at the moment… nobody knows what’s going on.”

The Electoral Commission has previously said residents will not be fined for failing to vote.

Reporting by Isabella Kelly

Thanks for your feedback Angela.

Please keep your comments coming!

While some booths across the state battled with technology, illness was behind a delayed start at SA’s southernmost polling booth.

Lines at a Mount Gambier polling booth. (ABC News: Joshua Brine)

Voters at Port MacDonnell, in the seat of Mount Gambier, had to wait until midday to cast their ballot due to illness-related staffing shortages.

Local voter Bruce Kent was planning on voting earlier in the morning, but came back later in the day.

“It’s a bit ridiculous. It’s a central town in a big area – a lot of people vote here,” he said.

Bruce Kent has planned to vote earlier in the day but couldn’t.

ECSA said staff were redeployed from other booths to ensure the booth at Port MacDonnell could eventually open four hours late.

Reporting by Joshua Brine

Long queues were snaking around Goodwood Primary School this morning in the marginal Liberal (2.2 per cent) seat of Unley.

Liberal candidate Rosalie Rotolo was seen handing out flyers and putting in every last effort to sway undecided voters.

Retiring Liberal David Pisoni has held the seat since 2006.

A long queue at the Goodwood Primary School polling booth. (ABC News: Evelyn Leckie)

While long a safe Liberal seat, the 2022 election saw a far more mixed geographic result, with Labor recording majorities across polling places in the northern half of Unley, while the Liberals won most booths further south.

Reporting by Evelyn Leckie

Even the koalas are excited about democracy!

This furry friend was spotted in a tree at the Lincoln Gardens Primary School voting centre in Port Lincoln.

A democracy koala at Port Lincoln. (ABC News: Duncan Bailey)

Voters, however, were scarce as the clock ticked closer to the end of polling day.

Reporting by Duncan Bailey

The ABC will have reporters at the election functions of the major parties – but not at tonight’s One Nation gathering.

The party has barred the ABC from its function at the Kent Town Hotel, the same venue where it held its campaign launch a month ago.

It cited the ABC’s reporting over its now-dumped candidate for Adelaide, Aoi Baxter, as the reason for its decision.

One Nation’s rise in the polls has been one of the major stories of the campaign, with tonight’s election count looming as a litmus test for the party at national level.

Pauline Hanson and Cory Bernardi at the Kent Town Hotel at the party’s campaign launch. (ABC News)

Black Forest Primary School is the location of a polling centre in the electorate of Badcoe, in Adelaide’s south-western suburbs. It’s currently held by Labor’s Jayne Stinson, and is considered a very safe Labor seat.

On election day, the school’s Parents and Friends Committee hosted a sausage sizzle, bake sale and served up takeaway coffees for voters.

Loren Quinn is the committee’s chair, and said all the bake sale items were donated by committee members and people at the school.

“All those profits will go towards some projects that we’ve got, so we’re wanting to upgrade our canteen, and then also are planning our sports rings and soccer goals and there’s another pool of money that will go to each junior, primary, middle primary and upper primary, for them to be able to spend,” she said.

Loren Quinn (left), Emily Wake, Alan Redford-Insall, Kate Naumann Smith at Black Forest Primary School. (ABC News: Sarah Maunder)

According to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) more than 400,000 South Australians have already cast their vote in early voting, which Ms Quinn explained made planning the election day fundraising event more challenging.

“Definitely early voting over the years that we have seen, it’s become more popular and it has drawn less people coming to get your democracy sausage and all of that, so definitely we’ve noticed that drop in people coming and loading on the day,” she said.

“One election we raised close to $6,000 and then the next election, which would have been the federal election, that must have been COVID years as well and we only raised about $3,500 so yeah a big difference in that, and then having leftover food that we couldn’t sell.”

Ms Quinn said the Parents and Friends Committee had been working hard to find that “sweet spot” of preparation — how many sausages to buy and cakes to make, to ensure there’s enough to sell on the day that also makes a profit.

“We pretty much order — I think it’s about 700 sausages, last year [at the federal election] we sold out very … I think it was almost like, by 2pm we were pretty much entirely sold out [of sausages] and our bake sale was pretty much gone as well,” she said.

“And that’s the thing, we have to get to that point that we still have to put in that cost, but we need to know that we’re recovering that cost on the day.”

Cakes at a bake sale at Black Forest Primary School. (ABC News: Sarah Maunder)

Reporting by Sarah Maunder

Hi there! Thank you for your question.

You can watch our coverage live on the News Channel from 6pm SA time, or live stream it on ABC iview, YouTube and ABC Adelaide’s Facebook page.

For those of you in South Australia, you can watch on ABC TV or listen on Local Radio across the state.

For the first time since One Nation’s dramatic opinion polling surge in late 2025, voters in the SA election have cast their ballots.

And it will give political watchers across the country a better answer to some key questions.

Will that opinion polling surge be replicated for One Nation on election day? And will that translate into Pauline Hanson’s party winning lower house seats?

You can read more in this analysis piece by the ABC’s Leah MacLennan.

This morning, Premier Peter Malinauskas cast his ballot with his family at Woodville Gardens.

Mr Malinauskas told reporters his top priority would be to make sure the state’s economy “continues to head in the right direction”.

Peter Malinauskas voting this morning with his children. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)

“Making sure that economic growth delivers better living standards, and that, of course, I think means houses are central to that equation,” he said.

Later in the morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Mr Malinauskas cooked up sausages at a polling booth in Hectorville in Adelaide’s east.

The eastern suburbs seat is held by the former opposition leader Vincent Tarzia with a 3.6 per cent margin but Labor’s Jenn Roberts is hoping to snag it from him.

Mr Albanese put on the charm for voters but didn’t stay to talk to the media during the visit.

Voters were impressed by the prime minister dropping into their local school.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a polling booth in Hectorville. (ABC News: Sophie Holder)

“I voted for Peter — always have. Mr Tarzia is a very good politician, but I think Peter will get in again,” one man said.

Another man said he voted Liberal and One Nation.

“Just a bit of a change I think we need,” he explained.

Another woman said she voted Liberal as she always had.

“What she said,” her husband said.

Additional reporting by Eugene Boisvert

Earlier today, Ashton Hurn voted in her home town of Angaston.

But it was her toddler Rupert who was the real star of the show.

Ashton Hurn’s son Rupert stole the show this morning at the polls. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)

The farming and football family has been in the Barossa for seven generations and appears to have the support of many of the locals who spoke to the ABC.

Ashton Hurn casting her vote with her son Rupert. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)

Grape grower Merv Storton used to play football with Ms Hurn’s father William (but spent more time on the bench than him, he says).

He said the Hurn family were “good, solid people, down to earth, just honest”.

“I’ve voted for Ashton. I think she’ll bring some stability to the Liberal Party in this state — because they need it,” Mr Storton said.

Merv Storton voted in the Barossa this morning. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)

Neville Smith knew Ms Hurn’s grandfather, Brian Hurn, who represented South Australia in cricket and was the mayor of Angaston and later the Barossa.

“She’s done a fantastic job, but she said she had a mountain to climb, but I reckon she’s got three mountains to climb to get over this lot,” Mr Smith said.

Neville Smith knew Ms Hurn’s grandfather. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)

Reporting Briana Fiore and Eugene Boisvert

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the 2026 SA election.

I’m Sara Garcia, joined by Daniel Keane, and together we will be bringing you live updates throughout the evening.

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Polls are due to close in just over an hour and counting will begin as a record number of candidates vie for a seat in the House of Assembly.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to submit them and we’ll do our best to get to them.

Let’s do this!