West Australian polling booths close

POLLING booths in Western Australia have closed after record-breaking early queues in the state's first fixed-term election.

A Newspoll published on Saturday pointed to a landslide win for the incumbent Liberal party, showing it would win 59.5 per cent of the vote on a two-party preferred basis.

Premier Colin Barnett, who holds the seat of the affluent western suburb of Cottesloe, said the poll was encouraging, but he wasn't taking anything for granted.

"Those polls are across all electors and the Liberal party has done detailed polling in individual seats, and that shows a different story," Mr Barnett said.

"There'll be a number of very close seats tonight."

He maintained that at least a dozen seats hung in the balance, and that the Liberals would form another coalition with the Nationals even if the conservatives won the election outright.

Labor leader Mark McGowan, who holds the seat of the working-class suburb of Rockingham, said he'd run the best campaign he could have.

"You can't get down, you can't get distracted - you have to focus on what matters to the people in the community and not be deterred by whatever comes along," Mr McGowan said.

Both leaders spent the day visiting polling booths around the city in a bid to drum up last-minute support.

The WA Electoral Commission (WAEC) said voters surged to the polls early in the day, but a new computerised voter checking system at many centres kept waiting times to a minimum.

In the regions, WAEC staff in the Pilbara town of Karratha were stretched to their limit with the early turnout.

"We were hammered," local returning officer Jill Johnson said.

"And in all my time working on elections I have never seen so many party officials and volunteers working so hard to canvass people's votes."

On top of the strong morning turnout, there was a 30 per cent increase in early voting, with 140,000 votes ready for tallying as soon as booths closed.

There were some light moments, including a raft of fancy-dressed superhero and fantasy fans who attended the Oz Comic-Con convention casting their votes in the Perth city polling place.

And a complete bridal party arrived at the Riverton district's Shelley Primary School centre before kicking on for festivities.

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