The rusted on Australians: How SA’s most consistent voting booths could change the 2022 Federal Election

Even South Australia's most diehard booths are prepared to change their vote when the nation heads to the polls. We spoke to the state's rusted on residents and reveal their election demands.

While politicians tend to ignore federal divisions where locals have voted the same way for eons, several spots in South Australia could be open to change.

While stronghold electorates like Sturt, Spence, Adelaide, Kingston, Makin and Barker might not be at the of top of the campaign agenda, if one was to fall it could spell doom for either party.

Scroll down to find all of SA’s rusted on booths using our searchable table.

Take Barker in the state’s southeast as an example.

It has never been held by the Labor Party and the incumbent Liberal MP almost tripled the amount of voters Labor candidate Mat O’Brien received when voters last went to the polls.

It is so safe, in fact, Labor have not yet declared a candidate for the division with just the Greens’ Rosa Hilliam and the United Australia Party’s David Swiggs running against Tony Pasin.

Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

At the Mount Gambier High School Barker polling booth, Mr Pasin has been dominant and in 2019, he claimed more than 50 per cent of the vote.

If a recent survey of the booth is anything to go by, he is set to again dominate Barker based on his advocacy for the region, something a party with no endorsed member would be unable to combat.

In the metropolitan division of Adelaide, advocacy only goes so far, but an entrenched working-class theme in one area of the seat looms as a stumbling block for any movement of the dial.

The Torrensville booth at Thebarton Senior College comprehensively endorsed Labor candidate Steve Georganas over Liberal foe Shaun Osborn.

Despite some voters wishing the booth was more marginal and pining for the focus of the federal government, it will take a herculean effort for anything to change.

In the Hindmarsh division, where Labor come out on top in all but one election since 2004, a polling booth at West Lakes Shore School has been a thorn in the side of the ALP.

At the last election where Labor MP Mark Butler secured 56 per cent of the vote overall, Liberal candidate Jake Hall-Evans snared more of the West Lakes booth’s votes.

But a combination of new voters to the area, a general disaffection for politics and the lack of an endorsed Liberal candidate could see this booth fall in line with its neighbours.

With the division of Boothby inevitably a key battleground in the election, the LNP-leaning Brighton Uniting Church booth producing a Labor result could see the division fall from the Liberals for the first time since 1949.

And the voters think it could happen following the departure of Nicolle Flint and two major party candidates.

It’s a tale of two cities, however, when it comes to Kingston – a division held by Labor stalwart Amanda Rishworth since 2007 – and the Christies Beach Primary School booth.

The Labor-leaning booth, despite murmurings of a potential swing towards minor parties, shows no signs of changing and could even dance in the streets if Prime Minister Scott Morrison departs.

In the state’s northern suburbs, which the divisions of Makin and Spence encroach on, Labor reigns supreme.

Defined by a working-class cohort of voters and rich multiculturalism, polling booths at Parafield Gardens and Salisbury North R-7 schools show the Labor domination has no indications of abating.

On the flip side, in leafy Burnside in the Sturt division, a Liberal loss seems a world away.

A comfortable overall margin at the 2019 election saw James Stevens ensure Sturt remained in Liberal hands uninterrupted since 2972, and the Burnside Primary School booth showed strong LNP support.

A recent survey of the area highlighted a voting group unlikely to underscore the massive shift needed to swing the result any other way.

On the other side of the election debate SA is home to a number of bellwether and volatile booths where voters are known to swing.