Labor holds on to Adelaide
ONE of Labor's star MPs appeared to have secured her key marginal seat last night despite a high-profile campaign from a leading Adelaide lawyer. 
Kate Ellis, 38, was likely to be returned as the MP for Adelaide after Liberal candidate David Colovic failed to dent her 3.9 per cent margin.
With more than two-thirds of the ballot counted last night, Ms Ellis had secured almost 55 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. She increased her vote by almost 1 per cent over Mr Colovic, an insolvency lawyer.
In what was a tough three-way contest with the Nick Xenophon Team, its candidate Joe Hill had taken almost 12 per cent of the primary vote.
Ms Ellis last night said voters had sent the major parties a "strong message" that they are disillusioned with the way politicians had been doing their job.
"Any smart member of Parliament would pay attention to the message they have been sent today," she told radio FIVEaa.
In a day of drama, voters in the key marginal seat faced waiting times of up to an hour at polling booths, forcing some to leave and return later.
Volunteers for parties across the political spectrum were left to face grumpy constituents when they finally reached the front of the line.
The queue at Prospect Primary snaked around the schoolyard when Mr Colovic arrived to vote about 2pm. The first-time candidate narrowly missed opponent, Labor incumbent Kate Ellis, who had been pressing the flesh at the same polling station minutes earlier.
Mr Colovic, who faced embarrassment over his comments about poorer parts of his electorate, said employment was voters' main issue.
"People understand that there are people struggling across the electorate," he said.
"They're concerned about finding a better way, a better future for Adelaide." At Enfield Primary School, Glenn Le Cornu was focused on the voting process itself.
"Have you seen the size of those voting sheets?" he asked. "It's going up the wall.
"It doesn't need to be electronic but maybe a smaller bit of paper wouldn't hurt." Ms Ellis has held the seat of Adelaide since 2004 when she defeated Liberal Trish Worth with 51.3 per cent of the vote.
Going into yesterday she held a 3.9 per cent margin.
An exclusive Advertiser-Galaxy poll of 518 people last week showed Ms Ellis ahead 53 to 47 on a two-party preferred basis.
However, her primary vote had fallen from 42.3 per cent at the last election to 35.
"I genuinely would not be surprised if there were all sorts of unexpected results here," Ms Ellis said.
"It's a huge task for us to try and unseat a first-term government but I'm really proud of the policies we've put forward." During the campaign, the Labor Leader Bill Shorten pledged $500 million to extend tram lines across Adelaide including building new tracks up O'Connell St and Prospect Rd.
ADELAIDE ELLIS (ALP) COLOVIC (LIB) HILL (NXT)LABOR HOLD