Voters take to social media to vent long queue frustration, lack of #DemocracySausages

Voters have taken to social media to vent their frustration over a lack of snags and lengthy queues at polling booths today, with people waiting more than 90 minutes to have their say.

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Voters across the state and country have taken to social media to share their frustration on long wait times and queues — and a lack of democracy sausages — at voting booths today.

In some parts of Sydney, people waited more than 90 minutes to have their say on the future of Australia.

Interstate voters at the Sun Tower polling booth on George St, Sydney, were forced to line up for more than two hours, with many people being told at 3:30pm to hop into cabs and head to Paddington or Leichhardt.

Interstate voters lining up at the Sun Towers in Sydney’s CBD. Picture: Brianne Makin

The interstate voters queue splurging out onto the street at the Sun Towers. Picture: Brianne Makin

Wayne Toohey vented his frustrations on Facebook.

“Lining up for half the f**king morning to vote, I really hope mine counts,” Mr Toohey said.

While no voters who lined up prior to the booth’s 6pm closing time were turned away, the massive line of people meant the Sun Tower booth remained open well past the closing deadline.

Many took to Twitter vent their annoyance throughout the day, with #DemocracySausage trending not only celebrate the 2019 Federal Election but to bemoan the booths with no snags available.

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An Australian Electoral Commission spokesman said 10 million voters walking in off the street to vote at 7000 polling places nationwide meant queues at some booths were inevitable.

“Given the scope of the activity on election day itself — and there are very few activities of this volume conducted on a single day outside of elections — there will be some queues,” the spokesman said.

I just did #DemocracySausage only minus the sausage. ☹️ The queue at the sausage stand was long, & it's hard for me to stand.
The kind AEC worker saw my walking stick & let me jump the very long queue to vote. I thought it would be a bit impertinent to demand to jump a 2nd queue.

— 💧 Karen (@kcIMT122) May 18, 2019

8am - long queues already in Glebe. Lots of Greens and Labor supporters handing out how to vote leaflets, but no coalition or UAP to be seen at all. Also no #democracysausages #auspol

— Dr Natali Pearson 🧜🏼‍♀️🎓💦 (@sea_greeny) May 17, 2019

“We’ve worked incredibly hard on minimising wait times by increasing the number of premises and staff, improving venue setup and tweaking queuing arrangements.

“There are more polling places and more polling officials than ever before.

Interstate voters line up at the Sun Towers in Sydney. Picture: Brianne Makin

“We’ve also looked closely at our polling official interactions with voters to see what savings can be achieved.

“The vast majority of voters appear to have had a smooth voting experience.”

Originally published as Voters take to social media to vent long queue frustration, lack of #DemocracySausages