The democracy sausage. It's a time-honoured tradition.
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For many, it's arguably one of the most exciting parts of voting.
The familiar sounds and smells of sausages crackling on a barbecue almost didn't happen in this year's ACT election.
While the humble sausage sizzle has come to symbolise Australian democracy, for schools the election barbecue has always been a fundamental part of the school community.
Namadgi School P&C president Rhodina Ellison has had the ACT election date flagged since the start of the year.
"The election was marked in my calendar as soon as I started the calendar for this year, it's a bonus fundraiser and it's a good opportunity to be out there showing the face of our school and meeting the locals," she said.
Schools were only given the go ahead to run a sausage sizzle a couple of weeks ago but on the proviso that parent associations worked with ACT Health to get a COVID-safe plan approved.
The plan was officially approved on Monday so many councils faced a last-minute rush to organise a sufficient number of sausages, bread, sauce and onion.
A kind gesture from a local butcher meant Namadgi School did not have to pay a cent. Ms Ellison said she contacted Platinum Meats in South Point Tuggeranong about possibly getting a deal on sausages but they decided to donate the lot.
"It's very exciting, it means a little bit more profit at the end of the day for kids," she said.
Ms Ellison said the school has only had one fundraiser all year and so it means the world to the P&C that they were given the green light.
Strict COVID protocols will be followed. There will be lots of hand sanitiser on hand and volunteers will be doing the one job, so only one person will be holding the sauce. Ms Ellison said the P&C had heavily advertised the price so people could bring the right change.
As well, schools will only be allowed to have one stall so there won't be complementary cake stalls.
Of the 82 polling booths on Saturday, 62 will be in Canberra schools.
When the booths are packed away, there will be deep cleaning of schools.
"All COVID-19 safety measures have been carefully planned and implemented following liaison with a number of stakeholders including the ACT chief health officer," Mr Ekin-Smyth said.
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There won't be as many people at school voting booths on Saturday compared to previous years, as of 3pm on Friday about 200,000 Canberrans had cast their vote.
Elections ACT had tipped that by the time booths closed at 8pm, about 70 per cent of eligible voters would have submitted their ballot.
"It represents a high level of success in spreading voter turnout over the full three-week period, which was designed to reduce crowds and one of the key aspects of our COVID safe election delivery plan," Mr Ekin-Smyth said.