Con Metaxiotis with his son at the polls in Benalla.
Photo by
Billie Davern
The recent federal election saw a lot of discussion and analysis take place, and whether you took it seriously or not, one of those discussions was about the lack of democracy sausages at polling centres in the region.
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McPherson Media Group journalists travelled around the region to various polling centres on Saturday, May 3, chatting with people about election day.
The blog that was run across the day was dominated, especially around lunchtime, by trying to find a democracy sausage.
Neville Cowie and Grantley West from the Stanhope Men’s Shed were some of the locals manning a barbecue in the region at the Stanhope Community Hall.
Grantley West and Neville Cowie from the Stanhope Men’s Shed had the snags covered at the Stanhope Community Hall polling booth.
Photo by
Jemma Jones
When News reporter Jemma Jones spoke with them, they expressed their concern at losing the tradition, and said they would have sold more sausages if fewer people had voted early.
Is this true? Let’s take a look at what Nicholls' pre-polling numbers over the years have shown.
This year, 60,765 people in the Nicholls electorate voted early — a 563.4 per cent increase from 2010, signalling a major shift in voting habits.
Comparing the 2022 election to 2025, pre-polling numbers jumped by 23.8 per cent.
However, the biggest jump, in percentage terms, was between the 2010 and 2013 elections, with an increase of 99.7 per cent.
It should be noted that the amount of pre-polling booths in between these years increased from one to four in the region, allowing for more people to vote early.
This year, we had seven pre-polling centres.
Though those manning barbecues at polling booths such as Stanhope have said these numbers might be worrying, other polling booths have had quite the opposite experience.
Kialla Central Primary School principal Debbie Humphries said her school had had great success running barbecues, cake stalls and, in winter, a soup stall each time it operated as a polling booth for election day.
With long lines coming from their stalls throughout the day, this year was no exception.
“We made just under $1700 (this year),” Miss Humphries said.
“I’ve been here for 17 years ... and it is one of the highest profits we’ve made since I’ve been here.
“The money raised this time was for our new playground equipment.”
Despite high pre-polling numbers, Miss Humphries said that didn’t stop those who had already voted from coming back to buy their democracy sausage.
“It was interesting we had people who voted early but came out to buy a sausage or some cake,” she said.
“I wouldn’t say out here pre-polling numbers are affecting us at all. From our perspective, we’re going against the norm, as it’s probably become an expectation of the community we will do one.
“It’s a real social event, and we see our past families and future families looking at the school whose mums and dads went to Kialla Central — it’s a great way to promote our school.”
Though the democracy sausage might be becoming harder to find in some communities — it may not be so bad for places such as Kialla Central, which has turned it into a staple of election days.
