The "sausage democracy" is the everyday name given to the Australian tradition of holding a fund-raising sizzle at the polls on election day.
Sausage democracy has been so well known and expected in Australian culture that, within 24 hours of July 2, 2016, federal Twitter elections convert emoji to #ausvotes from the ballot box into sausages lying on top of a piece of white bread topped with sauce. In December 2016, the Australian National Dictionary Center chose "democratic sausage" as the Australian Word of the Year for the Year 2016.
Australia always vote on Saturday, and voting is mandatory, so there is always a big voter turnout, both for state and federal elections. Many polling stations are located in schools, village halls and churches, so groups whose facilities are used for polling stations often take advantage of the large number of people who come to their locations, and establish kiosks to raise funds for their groups. For many community groups, this is the biggest fundraising event of the year.
In some cases, vegan sausage is sold on polling day at certain polling stations. This is the case with The Greens in 2017 Queensland state elections.
Sausage on bread is not the only item sold in election day kiosks. Voters can also buy cakes, drinks, and other foods such as vegetarian and gluten free options. Web sites and social media accounts have been set up to help people find which voting booths have stalls and what will be available to them so they can choose polling locations according to their food choices. In the July 2, 2016 federal election, one of these sites recorded 2301 polling places as sausages and/or available cakes, and another recorded 2094, each more than one-third of the total.
Some cake stalls sell themed candies called politics names like Alba-Cheesy Cakes (Anthony Albanese), Malcolm Turnovers, Malcolm Turnballs, Plebiscites (plebiscites), Jacqui Lambingtons (Jacqui Lambie), Tanya Plibiscuits (Tanya Plibersek), and Richard Di Nutella Fudge (Richard Di Natale).
In 1989, Peter Dowding, Prime Minister of Western Australia, was forced to deny allegations that the Labor Party bribed voters with sausages and free drinks before the country's election that year. Police are investigating whether the 'free family sausage' was held a week before the election violated the Election Law. The story continues when Dowding accuses the leader of the state Liberal Party, Barry MacKinnon, photographed during a campaign wearing hats and aprons, therefore "involved in the spread of sausages".
Video Democracy Sausage
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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