Australia had a meaty election over the weekend — both politically and gastronomically.
Politically speaking, Australians were the Southern Hemisphere’s version of Canadians in their recent election. A left-of-center party that had been trailing in the polls got a big boost out of President Donald Trump imposing tariffs and wound up winning. In both cases, the right-of-center leader who had tried to model himself after Trump not only lost but also lost his seat in parliament. Trump has now been credited (or blamed) with keeping left-of-center parties in power in both countries.
That’s not what we’re here to talk about, though. We’re here to talk about food. Specifically, democracy sausages.
No, not the famous quote attributed to the 19th century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck about how one should watch neither laws nor sausages being made, although Quote Investigator says the true origin of that quote was the American poet John Godfrey-Saxe in 1869.
We’re talking here about actual sausages — and, of course, actual democracy.
Australia is not like us in many ways. Their seasons are upside down. They have spiders the size of a human head. They eat Vegemite. (If you don’t know, don’t ask.) Here’s the difference that matters today: Australians find ways to actually enjoy their elections.
Here in the United States, elections have become grim, gut-wrenching affairs. Maybe Australian elections are, too. But while our act of voting is a bureaucratic affair, Australians have managed to turn theirs into a festival. More to the point, it is the custom for civic groups to set up tents at polling stations — their term for our precincts — and sell sausages. Or, as Australians call them, “democracy sausages.”
“Turning voting into a community event featuring food and a festival-like spirit is uniquely Australian,” according to the Museum of Australian Democracy, which has a webpage dedicated to “The Sizzling History of the Democracy Sausage.”
Australians are able to turn every polling station into a food-driven festival for one reason: They vote on Saturdays. We Americans vote on Tuesdays. The British always vote on Thursday. Canadians on Monday. No matter, they’re all weekdays, busy with getting to work, getting the kids to school and then to soccer practice. Busy and boring. Australians, a more laid-back people, see no need for all that hurry, hurry, hurry. They vote on weekends and make it a party. Does this increase turnout? We don’t know because in Australia, voting is compulsory.
The Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra, the national capital, traces the practice of making Election Day a festive one back to the 1920s. That’s when Australia made voting mandatory — in 1924, to be precise. (The penalty for not voting: A small fine). That compulsory voting naturally created a crowd. A big turnout, on a weekend, at some central location such as a school or community center — all the elements to create a festival were there. School groups and community groups quickly started setting up booths to sell food as a fundraiser for whatever their particular cause might be. “Early on it was cakes, jams and even crafts, but with the rise in popularity of the portable gas barbecue in the ’80s, this extended to the much-loved Aussie sausage sizzle,” the museum says. “It continues to evolve to include elevated options like sourdough rolls, vegetarian sausages and more.”
Despite the long-standing tradition, the phrase “democracy sausage” is a fairly new one, inspired by a website that in 2010 attempted to map every location in the city of Brisbane offering a “snag” — Australian slang for a sausage. The phrase “democracy sausage” caught on; by 2016 the the Australian National Dictionary Centre had declared it the “word of the year,” even though it’s technically two words. Now there’s a formal democracysausage.org website that maps the locations nationwide.
With this year’s Australian election coming up, I asked some of my Australian friends to take photos — and Bruce Hardie, who lives in Canberra, came through.
Here’s another way that Australian elections are different from ours: Australians can choose which polling station to use. This was an innovation introduced years ago by a rural-based party that had lots of members who worked far from home and couldn’t get to their required polling station. I’m surprised that no one in the Virginia has proposed a break from the traditional local polling station. (Update: Colorado, Maryland and Texas do have variations of this “vote anywhere” law, but Virginia does not).This sounds like something Democrats would be more likely to do, although Republicans — with far more rural voters — would be the most likely beneficiaries. We do have early voting (in most states) to get around this, although Australians have early voting, too. This year 37.5% of Australians voted early, but still left plenty of people to go vote in person — and buy a democracy sausage.
My friend Bruce decided to vote at the Old Parliament House polling station in Canberra.
Voting at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. Photo by Bruce Hardie. 
Voting at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. Photo by Bruce Hardie. 
Voting at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. Photo by Bruce Hardie. 
Voting at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. Photo by Bruce Hardie.
“The vibe is generally very relaxed among the voting public,” Bruce told me through a messaging app. “Chatting in line is common. The line was relatively long at Old Parliament House at 11AM because a lot of people seemed to be of the same mind as me in wanting to participate at an iconic venue. The Museum of Australian Democracy was keeping folks occupied and handing out merch at the end. I went to the local school after to grab another couple of sausages and there was a queue there as well around noon, possibly those planning a lunchtime sausage as part of the trip. That queue was 20mins.”
And, you’ll see in the photo, he scored an “I Voted” sticker that referenced both sausage and the location.
How big is the sausage tradition in Australian elections? “My social media feed features 30% pictures of snag in hand yesterday,” Bruce told me.
One his pictures showed a tent for the Rotary Club of Tuggeranong, the place name being a city in the Australian Capital Territory — their version of our District of Columbia, except that their ACT is 13.3 times bigger than our D.C. and, while our federal district contains just one city, theirs contains multiple communities. I contacted the Rotary and heard back from John Britton, who coordinated this year’s democracy sausage event. He said the Tuggeranong Rotarians cooked 1,450 sausages this year and a neighboring tent set up by the Old Parliament House Rover Scouts (an Australian scouting group aimed at those ages 18-25) cooked 1,000 more. “That is a huge day’s work,” Britton said by email.
One of the stories dominating news coverage of the Australian election — aside from who won — was what the Australian news site NewsWire called “the staggering price of a democracy sausage,” with some locations commanding “the hefty fee of $6” while others made do with a more standard $3.50, or $5 for a “sausage sizzle” and drink combo. That $6 Australian would be $3.90 in our money, the $5 combo works out to $3.25. The Sydney-based tabloid Daily Telegraph ran an interactive site asking readers to list what they paid for a democracy sausage. Alas, the results are behind a paywall but the headline says: “$6 a snag?! Australia’s democracy sausage price spike.”
While the Rotarians didn’t say how much they raised, you can do your own math (math still works the same way Down Under) and see that quite a bit of money got raised. The Red Hills Primary School had a tent set up with a stated goal of raising $120,000 for a park — $77,950 in our dollars. Britton said the Tuggeranong Rotarians would use their money for the usual run of Rotary programs they support: “This includes financial and in-kind support to food pantries in outer suburbs, support for young people at risk in the community. Other youth programs include support for annual awards for Art, Dance, Vocation education and School-based Apprentices; the Rotary Youth Exchange program and leadership programs.”
Now, I haven’t led you this far just to imagine the sounds and smells of an Australian sausage sizzling on the barbie, although that might be a more pleasant diversion than whatever it is our politicians have done today. Instead, it’s to pose this question: Why can’t we do this in the United States?
Don’t let our November election date be the obstacle. May in the Southern Hemisphere is the equivalent of November here. In Canberra, the temperature was 32 degrees Fahrenheit about an hour before the polls opened (although Australians go by Celsius) and peaked at 68 degrees in early afternoon, then fell back toward freezing come closing time at 6 p.m. That’s cooler than the temperatures in Virginia on our Election Day this past November — which in Roanoke ranged from 51 degrees to 71 degrees.
Why must we just walk in, vote and walk back out, shaking our heads at the choices we’re offered? Yes, I realize there are rules on how close nonvoters can be to the polling place, but every precinct I’ve ever visited had plenty of space out in the parking lot. Over the years, I’ve seen voters, I’ve seen campaign workers, I’ve even seen a candidate or two — but I’ve never seen a community group selling anything. Why can’t we have a democracy sausage, too?
Update: While I’ve never seen anyone selling food at a polling place in Virginia, I’m told it’s tradition in Arlington County for Girl Scouts to do so. If you know if such a tradition somewhere in Virginia, please let me know. And share photos, if you can!
Early voting is now underway
Democrats are holding statewide primaries for lieutenant governor and attorney general. Both parties are also holding scattered primaries for House of Delegates and local offices. We have a list of who’s running for what on our Voter Guide. I’ll look at the early voting trends in Friday’s edition of West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter. You can sign up for that or any of our other free newsletters here: