Electoral authorities in South Australia have confirmed that a One Nation candidate’s wafer-thin victory margin has widened following the dramatic discovery of 81 previously uncounted votes concealed within sealed boxes, prompting questions about ballot handling procedures.
Acting electoral commissioner Leah McLay ordered an emergency recount after officials located three sealed containers linked to the Narungga and neighbouring Stuart districts containing dozens of overlooked ballot papers—some still in their unopened envelopes—weeks after the original result had been declared.
The overlooked cache comprised 77 absent ordinary ballot papers that had never been opened, alongside four declaration ballots mistakenly returned to the commission with votes still inside, representing a potentially decisive number in an electorate where victory margins measured in dozens rather than hundreds.
Chantelle Thomas, who initially defeated Liberal opponent Tania Stock by a mere 58 votes following a first recount declared on April 2, saw her lead expand to between 73 and 74 votes after the newly discovered ballots were incorporated into official tallies.
Of the 81 retrieved papers, one was rejected whilst four proved informal under electoral rules. The remaining 76 valid votes subjected to two-party preferred counting broke 46 for Thomas against 30 for Stock—a distribution that strengthened rather than threatened the One Nation candidate’s position.
“Had the ballot papers been included in the original count and subsequent recount, the margin in favour of Chantelle Thomas One Nation would have increased from 58 to 74,” McLay stated in confirming the final outcome. “I have therefore determined that the result in Narungga would not have differed had the ballots been included.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson announced the verified result via social media on Friday, congratulating Thomas whilst emphasising her party would now hold seven seats in the incoming South Australian Parliament. “The recount for the seat of Narungga, South Australia, where a missing box of ballot papers was found has been completed,” Hanson wrote, noting the increased victory margin.
Cory Bernardi has been designated to serve as One Nation’s parliamentary leader in the state legislature.
The Electoral Commission of South Australia has not publicly addressed how the sealed boxes containing uncounted ballots escaped detection during initial processing, nor what procedural changes might prevent similar oversights in future elections.
The incident highlights vulnerabilities in ballot handling protocols when results hinge on margins sufficiently narrow that relatively small numbers of overlooked votes could theoretically alter outcomes.
