Petition seeks to start design contest for Minnesota’s ‘I voted’ stickers
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From crop art to snow plow names, Minnesotans love creative competitions. Soon, there could be a new one: “I voted” sticker designs.
A petition to allow Minnesotans to choose their voter sticker designs launched this week. The petition, created by local content creator Olivia Iverson, gained about 800 signatures from its launch on Wednesday to Friday afternoon. Petition signers agree, saying voting deserves to look cool and express Minnesotan creativity.
“It’s cool to see that you have some idea on your own and that other people feel the same way,” Iverson told MPR News on Friday. “And they feel passionate enough to get involved and put their name on a project to change something a lot of voters could see in our state.”
TikTok exchange leads to petition
Other states such as Iowa and Michigan host competitions for children and adults to submit their designs to be featured on voting stickers handed out at the polls.
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Iverson voted in person on Election Day and received the state’s signature, plain red sticker. She then saw pictures of her friends who live in other states showing their voting stickers.
“It got me thinking like ‘Wow, those are really cool. I wonder if we could have fun stickers like that?’ and I posted the idea on my Tiktok account,” Iverson said.
Shortly after she posted her video, Democratic state Rep. David Gottfried, whose district includes areas of Roseville and Shoreview, responded to the idea in his own video.
“I will say that if you can get me a petition with 10,000 Minnesotan signatories to it, that I will research, develop and write a bill that would establish a design contest for our ‘I Voted’ sticker, alright, and I will introduce it in our next legislative session starting in January 2027,” Gottfried said in a TikTok.
Iverson announced the petition soon after.
Why Minnesota’s ‘I voted’ stickers look the way they do
According to current Minnesota law established in 1989, voters can get a “sticker containing the words ‘I VOTED,’ and nothing more.” The law doesn’t specify what the sticker must look like.
The stickers have been a Minnesota tradition for decades – a 1989 law let election judges hand out stickers, and the Secretary of State’s office printed 2 million bright red “I voted” stickers for Election Day in 1990, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune article at the time.
Joe Mansky, former Minnesota state election director and Ramsey County election manager, designed the classic ‘I Voted’ sticker. Mansky chose to make the sticker red because red is a primary color, making it easier for people to see and be drawn to, according to Kare11.
The Secretary of State Office ordered 4.18 million stickers for this year's midterm election, costing the office $25,200, according to a spokesperson for the Minnesota Secretary of State.
In the last Legislative session earlier this year, state Sen. Bonnie Westlin presented a bill, brought to the legislature by a St. Anthony Village High School student, to let election officials hold competitions to create new designs for the “I voted” sticker. The bill outlined that designs could include images but must only include the words “I voted.” However, the bill stalled.
“If this has been proposed before, maybe there’s something we could do better to actually make it happen,” Iverson said.
Around the country, states allow counties to hold their own voter sticker competitions for elementary to high school aged children to design. States such as Texas, Wisconsin, California, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Missouri all have counties participating in sticker design competitions.
“I know that some people really love the traditional red sticker,” Iverson said. “I think that we could have both the traditional red sticker and some fun new ones.”
