Egg and bacon rolls will be served at nearly half of registered polling stations around Australia on election day in the first sign the "democracy sausage" may be dropping off the voting menu.
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Between the 2019 and this year's federal polls the proportion of stalls offering bacon and egg has leapt 6.7 per cent to encompass 44.9 per cent of polling booth menus nationwide, the crowd-sourced Democracy Sausage map data shows.
Some of the 599 stalls registered so far are not offering sausages at all.
Shocked to the core
It's a trend that has Sydney-based "sausage queen", Chrissy Flanagan, appalled.
"We don't hold many things as perfectly true in Australia for all Australians - and sausages on election day is maybe the only one," the Sausage Queen Brewing chief executive said.
Democracy sausages were a "sacred institution" and a "sacrament of democracy", she said.
Even posing the question of snags vs rolls was offensive to the queen's delicate sensibilities.
"Shocks me and rocks me to my core to have that question in any way," she said.
"I thought we had moved past this as a society."
Ms Flanagan said those who preferred egg and bacon rolls to a traditional snag were wrong but were entitled to their wrong opinion.
"It's a broad church and it's okay to be wrong in a democracy," she said. "And they are."
Why democracy sausages anyway?
Snag traditionalists and new age bacon and egg roll-ers alike contribute the gold coins they use to buy a roll or sausage to local schools, clubs, and the wider community - making a big difference to locals' lives.
Parents Victoria chief executive Gail McHardy said election day provided great opportunities for fundraising.
"Members of the public are coming in, so it's a wider spread of the community," she said.
"They are running into the booths and they're hungry and there's something to entice them."
School equipment, camps and playgrounds
Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations president Natham Reynolds said every dollar raised was a huge bonus for schools.
"An election day sausage sizzle, or book stall or cake stall, that's adding money into the association which then goes back into supporting the children of the school," he said.
Mr Reynolds said many schools were on tight budgets and money raised would help fund the upgrade of play and sporting equipment, as well as contributing towards school camps and fun days.
At his local school, Sorrel School, the extra money would go towards upgrading literacy books.
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Mr Reynolds said most schools were leaning into the usual spread of sausage sizzles, burgers, and an option for the vegetarians.
But Mr Reynolds was not opposed to the bacon and egg roll.
"I think it's a good initiative," he said.
Democracy for kids
The day also served as an opportunity to engage kids with democracy.
"I think it's hugely important that kids recognise the importance of the elections," Mr Reynolds said.
"Having the elections held up in the schools, I think that probably puts more focus within the schools, so teachers are probably more likely to be asked questions from students about [the election]."
Mr Reynolds said many schools found it difficult to rally enough volunteers and urged the broader community to get in touch with their local schools and lend a hand.
Sausage bias
Democracy Sausage spokesperson Anette Tyler said "democracy bacon and egg" did not roll off the tongue in quite the same way, and of course had a bias towards the traditional democracy sausage.
"That said, the main point of the democracy sausage "movement" more broadly is to raise money for local community groups, so we will always accept and encourage all booths for our map as long as something is on offer," she said.
Bec Pridham
