Federal election 2025: Where to find a democracy sausage on May 3 election day

For many Aussies, Federal election day just isn’t complete without indulging in a democracy sausage.

The classic bun, topped with a beef sausage, tomato sauce, mustard and onions is one of those simple ‘straya pleasures that just can’t be beat.

Tomorrow, primary schools and halls across the country will be packed with campaigners, pollies and voters exercising their democratic rights, as Australia decides who will be the next Prime Minister of our great country.

But the aroma of sizzling sausages and onions won’t fill the air at every polling place, so to save you from disappointment, we thought we’d point you in the right direction.

Here’s everything you need to know about the democracy sausage ahead of the May 3 election.

What is a ‘democracy sausage’?

The democracy sausage is the term given to the sausage in bread you can buy from the barbecue stalls held at polling booths on election day, with all the proceeds generally going to a local fundraising cause.

Eating a snag on election day has become a great tradition, with leaders often coming under scrutiny about how they eat the national delicacy.

During the 2016 election, outrage erupted when former PM candidate Bill Shorten turned his roll on its side, and ate it like a sandwich.

“It was a crusty roll,” he told AAP this week.

“To eat it at the front, you needed the teeth of Jaws, so I made a relatively pragmatic decision to eat it from the side.

“Apparently, that caused a scandal around the country.”

But the backlash hasn’t deterred Mr Shorten from doing things his own way.

“On Saturday, I’m going to eat the sausage the way I did in 2016 just to commemorate,” Mr Shorten told AAP.

We’ll be watching closely tomorrow to see what Albo and Dutton do...

Where can I find a democracy sausage?

There will be about 7000 polling booths open on Saturday with more than 1800 linked to a sausage sizzle or bake sale on the official Democracy Sausage website.

The website was kick-started in 2013 after a group of West Aussies realised there was no easy way to find out which polling places had a sausage sizzle.

With a super easy-to-use interactive map, voters can now find the booths with snags and sweet treats.

How much money does the democracy sausage raise?

The democracy sausage stalls are estimated to have raised between $1200 and $1600 on average at the last Federal election, rising above $3000 in some areas, according to the website’s creators.

Across the 2200 polling places in 2022, an estimated $4.1 million was raised after costs.

Helen Ensikat, electoral sausage integrity commissioner, confirmed preparations for election day were heating up, and despite more than 5.5 million people casting early votes, she didn’t expect a downturn in sales.

“In spite of high pre-polling, we’re still seeing tremendous numbers of sausage sizzles and cake stalls planned across the country,” she said.

“Remember that even if you’ve already voted, there’s nothing to stop you dropping by your local school or community hall on the weekend to support their fundraiser. You can only vote once but you can buy as many democracy sausages as you want!”

What about the expats?

For our fellow Aussies abroad, don’t fret democracy sausage stalls are popping up all over the globe.

“We’ve heard from ten Australian overseas polling places that are hosting election barbecues,” Ms Ensikat said.

Some of the international stalls have been listed in Indonesia, Nepal, Japan, US, South Africa, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and even Antarctica.

In New York, two Aussies abroad said they have “taken over a NYC hotdog cart and turned it into the OFFICIAL Democracy Sausage Cart 2025 to bring you a taste of Australia”, according to News Corp.

The Democracy Sausage team encourages anyone with information about a fundraiser that’snot yet on the map to get in touch, either by sending a tip-off via the website or by reaching out on social media.