The Tompkins County Board of Elections has announced the winning design for the 2023 “I Voted” sticker contest, created by Dakota Tseng. The design — which features a cat in a field of flowers — will be found on 30,000 “I Voted” stickers for Tompkins County voters in the November 2023 general election.
Tseng recently graduated from New Roots Charter School and will be celebrated at a future Tompkins County Legislature meeting. The final eight designs came from students from local schools including New Roots Charter School, Lehman Alternative Community School, Ithaca High School and Dryden High School. The creators of the designs weren’t identified prior to the contest, other than being local students.
The overall contest received more than 2,100 votes, with Tseng’s design receiving 565 votes. The second and third place winners, designs featuring a banner stating “I Voted” and a pig with the same message, received 487 votes and 271 votes each. See the full results here.
The TCBOE launched the “I Voted” sticker contest to boost civic engagement among the county’s young members and to encourage voter turnout for local elections.
“As a recently-graduated senior, I love to participate in democracy,” Tseng said, according to Tompkins County. “I hope my sticker design will inspire others to engage as well!”
Julia Senzon is a reporter from the Cornell Daily Sun working on The Sun’s summer fellowship at the Ithaca Voice. This piece was originally published in the Ithaca Voice.