Overview
When the ancient Greeks dreamt up democracy many moons ago, they surely knew their labour of political love would reap plentiful rewards for humanity — barbecuable rewards. Why else would our society have evolved so deliciously to the point where Election Day is synonymous with hot snags in bread?
Yep, here in Australia, voting and sausage sizzles go together like Q&A and provocative tweets. But thanks to a bit of ingenious technology, you don't have to simply cross your fingers and hope your local voting booth is one of the ones firing up the barbie on voting day. There's a nifty online map that'll tell you exactly where to find those glorious democracy snags.
The Democracy Sausage website crowdsources data from social media sites, as well as from direct audience submissions, to map out the polling places that feature sausage sizzles and other food and drink offerings.
While the site has offered a comprehensive sausage database for various elections since 2016, it's currently getting a run for the upcoming 2022 federal election, which takes place this Saturday, May 21.
Elliott Kramer
Jump onto the map to easily identify which polling places will be slinging sausage sizzles, cake stalls, bacon and egg rolls, and coffee. You'll even spy separate icons marking those spots that are serving vegetarian food and halal options.
According to the website's own stats, there are currently 722 polling places confirmed to feature sausage sizzles for this weekend's voting, with more to come. Of course, since the map is built largely off community intel, it's not entirely exhaustive — if you've got some goss about sausage sizzle locations, you can help by sharing it with the team via a direct message or tweeting #democracysausage.
If you're a diehard fan of the humble Election Day snag, you'll also find a selection of snag-related merch available on Democracy Sausage's Redbubble online store.
Of course, if you're one of the many Aussies who took advantage of early voting or postal voting for this election, you might have to settle for a Woolies run and a home-cooked homage to that democracy sausage instead.
To plot your sausage haul during the federal election on Saturday, May 21, head over on the Democracy Sausage website.
Top image: Jonathan Taylor, via Unsplash.