I finally got an answer to a question I’ve been wondering about ever since voting in Michigan’s primary election on Aug. 4: where did that “I Voted” sticker come from?

Sticker

The worker handing it out at the polling place said the sticker was “designed by kids.” The local official in charge of our elections, Clinton Township Clerk Kim Meltzer, told me via email that it was a winner of a 2024 sticker design contest, but actually, it wasn’t one of those designs, either. She did me the favor of asking the county where it came from, since they were the ones that doled out the stickers to local officials.

In response, they forwarded a press release from six years ago, which doesn’t seem to be available online in raw form, so here you go. It revealed that the design was by Kayla McCuen, a then-high-school-senior who won a county-run contest in 2020, where kids in the local school districts could submit sticker designs. The theme was “YOUR VOTE / OUR FUTURE.”

Winning designs

Here’s what McCuen said about the design at the time:

In my sticker, you can see a pair of hands cradling the words “Your Vote Matters.” It’s a reminder that you make a difference! I’ve always believed that it was not only your right, but a privilege to be able to make such an impact.

I reached her over Facebook, and she told me she never expected her sticker would be passed out for this long.

“Even still, my friends text me every election, be it a local or presidential election, and send me pictures of my sticker,” she said, adding, “I even see it out in the wild posted in bar bathrooms or street sign poles.”

She said she thinks she did it as a project for an art class.

“It was a really cool experience to be a part of,” she said. “That year was my first year voting in a presidential election, so it’s an interesting piece of memorabilia for me.”

Goce Nedanovski, election specialist with the county clerk’s office, told me “there isn’t really a story” behind this sticker still seeing active use.

“We just had a lot left over from 2020,” he said. “We finally gave out the last of it this year.”