How an off-year election inspired the "I Voted" sticker campaign that changed everything
The "I Voted" sticker campaign is 40 years old this year.
The first “I Voted” stickers credited with leading to their widespread adoption started as a way to pass a ballot measure for badly needed infrastructure in an off-year election. The year was 1985, the place was Maricopa County, Ariz., and the cause was paying for freeways.
The Phoenix area in the 1980s was growing fast, and the Arizona state legislature passed a measure letting voters in Maricopa County vote on a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for freeway improvements.
Passing a tax increase in a state that was then still represented in the U.S. Senate by Barry Goldwater and that the year before had resoundingly reelected Ronald Reagan as president seems challenging in and of itself, but supporters of the measure were actually worried about turnout.
Turnout always dropped in the afternoon, and members of Phoenix Board of Realtors, which supported the freeway tax hike because of how it would help property values, brainstormed ways to keep voters showing up throughout the day, according to The Arizona Republic.
If morning voters wore campaign-style buttons that showed they voted, the realtors thought, maybe it would encourage more people to vote later in the day. At 20 cents per button, though, the idea of “I Voted” campaign buttons was too expensive. Stickers were a cheaper alternative, and the board partnered with the county to produce them.
Designer Nikylla Lue Celine made the first stickers, which said “I Voted Today” on an oval with waving red-and-blue bands. They also had text around the edge acknowledging the realtor board and county were behind them, which Maricopa’s then-recorder wanted to advertise, per the Republic.
Though there are reports of some earlier stickers about voting, Arizona lays claim to the first that started a trend, and the artwork for Celine’s original sticker was sent to the Smithsonian, though it’s not currently online. Ultimately, the freeway tax hike passed in a 72%-to-28% blowout, and the “I Voted” sticker continued.
By the 1986 midterms the following year, the company National Campaign Supply began selling “I Voted” stickers, and the Phoenix Board of Realtors kept giving out stickers, eventually distributing 30 million between 1985 and 2008.
In Maricopa County today, where voters are voting on a bond for the county’s public hospital, its stickers include one design showing a ballot wearing glasses and a hat giving a thumbs up, and new stickers introduced last year designed by kids and adults showing Arizona symbols landscapes. The design has changed and the purpose has also expanded.
“I Voted” stickers are no longer just physical manifestations of doing your civic duty, they’re digital tools for persuasion, and some counties have opened the design process to local kids, making the process more engaging.
Social media has made the “I Voted” sticker selfie as if not more important than the sticker itself. A 2010 Facebook study found a get-out-the-vote message sent to 61 million users nudged 340,000 people to vote who otherwise would have not. An Instagram Story about voting in New York City in the morning, then, might boost turnout in California in the afternoon in a way that was not possible 40 years ago.
Arizona realtors were just trying to boost support for public infrastructure with their first “I Voted” stickers in 1985. They started a movement.
Update: This story was updated with additional information about new Maricopa County “I Voted” stickers.
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