Armidale Express journalist Dannielle Maguire went from booth to booth in the city, sinking her teeth into the election day sausages to get a taste of democracy; sweet, meaty democracy. 

The votes for the election may take many hours to count, but the results of another contest are in. The best sausages in the city have been ranked and a clear winner has been declared. Scroll through our list for a detailed political-sausage analysis from a journalist on the ground. 

Drummond Memorial Public School - 9/10

When I first arrived at this polling booth, I was told there were no sausages left. I was saddened, as #democracybaconandeggrolls wasn't a trending hashtag. 

Thankfully some absolute trooper brought in reinforcements, because this was the kind of pork barreling you wanted to swallow this election period. To quote Charlotte's web from Charlotte's Web, this was some pig. This was some perfect processed porcine, like the flesh of Babe himself. It tasted like freedom. It tasted like democracy. It tasted like numbering each and every box below the line. 

At $2.50 it was reasonably priced, sitting in the middle of the sausage price spectrum in the city. 

If we were going on meat stick alone, this bad boy would have scored a perfect 10. But the entire ensemble - sausage, onion, bread - was a little short of perfection. The crust on the bread was just that little bit stale (perhaps from the afternoon wind) and I could have done with a bit more onion. But these were just minor issues. This was a glorious mouthful of meat. 

Armidale City Public School - 8/10

Look, we can count on P&C volunteers to put on a good barbecue. These people have kept their offspring alive long enough for them to reach school age, so you can assume they know how to cook food that won't poison you.

What I liked about this particular barbecue were the extra touches - the homemade bunting, the vegetarian option and some cluey parent's foresight in putting photos of the meat products on the menu. This is a professional operation. 

As for the sausage itself, it was a quality tube of dead animal. Very little gristle, no charring and plenty of juices. I can't say with 100 per cent certainty if it was pork, but I'm fairly certain that it wasn't rat. It tasted like an animal that was raised and slaughtered above board. The bread was fresh, and the onions were plenty.

What got in the way of a perfect score was the pure functionality of it. It was a two-hander. And that's probably fine if you're sitting down. But if you're a busy professional person reporting on breaking sausage news, you need something you can slam down with one hand. The onions, while flavoursome, were also a tiny bit overcooked for my liking. Also, the most expensive of the lot at $3. 

Across the road from Dick Smith - 8/10

This barbecue was all about the service. The volunteers from the UNE Gaming Society know their customers. And in this case, their customer was a 24-year-old journo who is terrible at managing her money, cares about her colon and usually has her hands full with pens and cameras. 

Firstly, I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with the wholemeal bread option. This extra hit of fibre is incredibility important, particularly as my body is now having to digest three sausages, three helpings of onions and three pieces of bread. I want this glut of democracy to pass quickly, and I am going to delude myself into thinking that a bit of wholemeal flour is going to speed up this process.

Secondly, the price was right. At just $2 a pop, these snags were a good deal. Although, being the stingey person that I am, I will absolutely try to claim this back on tax next financial year. I am certain election day sausages come under the umbrella of work expenses...

Thirdly, they administered the sauce for me. 

These guys ticket a lot of boxes but unfortunately the sausage let them down. It was plain from the first bite that this was a lower quality saus than the others. It wasn't bad, but it didn't seem to have the same smoothness as the others. 

Armidale Town Hall - 1/10

Where there's smoke, there's fire, and where there's no smoke, you can safely assume there are no sausages being cooked because everyone knows the best way to cook a cylinder of meat is to practically set it alight. There may have been a few fiery opinions, but I could see no smoke as I approached the hall. My figurative heart sank (but my actual heart was probably thrilled as one can only imagine my cholesterol levels were through the roof). Not a single barbecue in sight. Most upsetting. 

It was, as my father says, "stiff bickies".

Literally. A few volunteers had offered some of their private stash of mixed biscuits after telling me there was no barbecue. The one point is for those kind souls. 

Ben Venue - 1/10

Our biggest regrets are not the things we did, but rather the things we didn't do. And what I didn't do was turn up in time. I was informed at about 2.20pm that the cake stall had sold out. 

But while the early bird gets the worm, the early journo would not have got the worm in this case. Because by "the worm" I mean "processed meat shoved into a sock of pig intestine" and there wasn't a single worm sold at the school that morning. 

I left the school in a daze, the only taste on my dry lips being sour disappointment, as demonstrated in the above photo.

Austin College, UNE - 0/10

The photo above is how I walked away from this polling booth - empty handed. 

There were no barbecues, no cake stalls, no hope.

Sure, I didn't need a fourth sausage of the day. But I would have liked the option of eating so much ground meat that I vomited in public. That's what freedom is all about, really: choice.