A fresh count will be held in the South Australian seat of Narungga after the Electoral Commission of South Australia uncovered ballot papers that were not included in the original election count, throwing renewed doubt over one of the closest results of the 2026 state poll.
Narungga, on the Yorke Peninsula, was declared for One Nation candidate Chantelle Thomas on 2 April 2026 after a recount, with Ms Thomas finishing just 58 votes ahead of Liberal candidate Tania Stock. But the commission now says it has found 642 ballot papers statewide that were not counted, including 81 linked to Narungga, prompting another count in the electorate.
According to the Electoral Commission, the Narungga ballots include 77 unopened absent ordinary ballot papers and four declaration ballot papers that were returned in the neighbouring seat of Stuart. Acting commissioner Leah McLay said the ballots were found in three sealed boxes returned to the commission and that a new count would be carried out on Friday, 17 April to determine whether the result would have been different had those papers been included from the start.
Ms McLay said the purpose of the new count is not to re-run the election, but to test whether the declared result still stands once the missing ballots are included. She said if the outcome appears capable of changing, the commission would seek legal advice about whether to petition the Court of Disputed Returns. The commission has also said it has not yet investigated the cause of the error.
The development is significant because Narungga was the tightest lower house contest in the state, with a margin of just 0.1 per cent. The discovery has also added to scrutiny of how the 21 March 2026 election was run, after earlier concerns about technical issues, long queues and an incident involving an extra Legislative Council ballot paper being sent in a postal voting pack. Premier Peter Malinauskas has previously said election problems would be reviewed as part of the standard post-election process.
For now, Narungga remains officially declared, but the fresh count means the final chapter of South Australia’s 2026 election may not have been written yet. With such a narrow margin, even a relatively small number of additional ballots has the potential to reshape the result — and put the spotlight firmly back on the integrity of the state’s election process.
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