The quiet Australians: How voters in SA’s bellwether and volatile booths can swing Federal Election 2022

The countdown to the federal election is on. These are the South Australia booths with the power to decide the result and what matters to the voters who call them home.

They’re famed for how much impact they have on the election, but SA’s bellwether and volatile booths could play their most significant federal election role in 2022.

With the nation divided, the way a voters swing at the polls in these pivotal seats will likely prove to predict the eventual federal election result.

Scroll down to find all of SA’s bellwether and volatile booths using our searchable table.

Within SA’s most marginal and discussed electorate – Boothby – a single booth is considered a bellwether meaning its voters have consistently picked who wins the actual election.

There are 105 of these critical booths across Australia, seven are in Sturt and there are three each in the electorates of Adelaide and Hindmarsh.

While all of SA’s federal electorates, except Mayo, are home to volatile booths known for swinging.

In Boothby, the Seaview High School polling booth has successfully predicted the eventual government every year since 2004.

And if the results of a recent survey are anything to go by, the federal election could be the most jaw-dropping yet.

Coupled with the departure of current Liberal MP Nicolle Flint, Boothby will undoubtedly be a key battleground.

At the Broadview Uniting Church booth in the electorate of Adelaide, the voters have similarly gone the same way as the election winner since 2004.

A comparative survey proved to be completely at odds with most federal election polls and could foreshadow a shock victory.

In the leafy eastern suburbs at Norwood West another bellwether booth exists at the Norwood Primary School.

Nestled among a Sturt electorate that has remained Liberal since 1972, this booth swung to Labor during their victories in 2007 and 2010.

But in 2022, swing voters loom as key players in what could prove to be a critical booth in the grand election scheme.

Whether they’re enough to unseat Liberal MP James Stevens, who famously slept through a vote on the controversial Religious Discrimination Bill, remains to be seen with Labor needing to pull off something remarkable to snatch the seat.

Could the fact then-sitting premier Steven Marshall almost lost his seat of Dunstan at the SA state election following a seven per cent swing to Labor candidate Cressida O’Hanlon be a sign of things to come?

At the Henley Beach Primary School in the Hindmarsh electorate, a state election red-wash looms as likely to swing the once Liberal voting booth back to Labor in what could be a defining moment.

Voters across Makin, Kingston and Baker are also set to play an integral role in what major party assumes power in the federal election, and what minor parties could prove to be a thorn in the side of Liberal and Labor.

While not falling into the category of being bellwether booths, the Tea Tree Gully and Mount Gambier North primary schools and Aberfoyle Park High School are all classed as volatile.

That means they’re full of voters who will swing their vote at the drop of a hat and can prove completely unpredictable to pollsters and politicians alike.

Volatile booths in general were credited in large part with forcing an unlikely Liberal victory in 2019.

The Tea Tree Gully booth voted Labor at the last election but Liberal four out of the previous five times, including during Labor’s enormous 2007 swing.

This year, that volatility looks set to remain with voters again either undecided or looking towards minor parties.

Likewise, at Aberfoyle Park, the voters of the area can’t choose if they’re Arthur or Martha having jumped between both major parties three times since 2004 including at the most recent election.

Young voters and those still undecided will again dictate the way this booth, and possibly the entire Kingston electorate, goes.

The Mount Gambier Primary School booth has been one of the most volatile in the state changing its outcome four times since 2004.

This time round voters loom likely as swinging away from the major parties in search of a representative that will call it like it is.