Both Premier Steven Marshall and Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas have joined more than a million South Australians in voting today.
There have been long lines at polling booths this morning, with social distancing measures limiting how many people can vote at once.
Voting in Woodville Gardens, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said he was hopeful that Labor would win today's election.
"I'm confident that my team and I have done all the work that we can to put an alternate vision forward for South Australians in the post-pandemic era," he said.
A female constituent confronted Mr Malinauskas about comments he allegedly made to a group of Young Liberals last week, calling them "girls" when they fell behind while crashing his weekly parkrun.
The woman said his comment was regrettable but she would still vote for him.
"I really respect you — I'm voting for health," she said.
"I see your beautiful wife there — you must regret those comments about girls — that was silly."
Mr Malinauskas said it was "a quip I'm kicking myself about".
Another man inside the booth thanked Mr Malinauskas for helping him and then the voter had to pull his shorts back up after they fell around his feet.
Premier focusing on economic record
Today's Newspoll has Labor leading the government 54–46 in its interpretation of the likely two-party preferred vote.
However, the Premier said he could still win, likening his opponent to former federal opposition leader Bill Shorten, who was favoured to win in 2019.
"They can't be fooled.
"They remember what happened under Labor.
"They won't forget Oakden, they won't forget the child protection crisis in South Australia, the closure of the Repat, the sky-high energy prices, the statewide blackouts — that's what Labor delivered after 16 years."
Mr Marshall said things were "moving in the right direction" in terms of the economy and reducing the cost of living.
"There's only one risk to that — it's a change in government today," he said.
"That will put a massive handbrake on our economy here in South Australia."
Several seats important to outcome
The most marginal seats are:
- Newland and King, in Adelaide's north-east
- Adelaide, which takes in the CBD and suburbs to the north
- Elder, centred around Edwardstown.
Liberal Caroline Power holds Elder by a margin of 1.9 per cent.
She said every vote would count.
"It's really challenging — boundaries have changed — that brings it back to 50–50 and it is a unique role where you can work really hard for a long period of time, give up several weekends and still be faced with a challenge," she said.
Her Labor opponent, Nadia Clancy, agreed it would be a close race.
"It's going to be tight," she said. "I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen but I'm hopeful and I think South Australians need a Labor government. We're the best chance for our future."
Large number of early votes
While in-person voting closes at 6pm today, more than 170,000 people have already cast pre-poll votes and there have been 160,000 postal vote applications.
SA Health says up to 80,000 people are in isolation and will need to collect their election ballots from testing stations around the state, fill them out at home before posting them back by 6pm.
Electoral Commission website delays
The Electoral Commission of South Australia says its website is working, despite reports of people struggling to access the site.
Its home page is taking a long time to load, with error messages appearing for many links off the home page.
The commission says the website is operating slower than usual and to expect delays.
