How ‘I Voted’ Stickers Came to Be
With every election season, you can guarantee 'I Voted' stickers will be worn proudly on voters' chests.
But how did these symbolic stickers come to be? Have they always been given out to voters?
According to TIME:
"It seems likely that the decals are a product of the early 1980s. An Oct. 29, 1982, Miami Herald article may contain the earliest mention of such a sticker, in a discussion of how small businesses in Fort Lauderdale were offering discounts to customers wearing “I Voted” stickers".-TIME
It was after this that in 1986 the National Campaign Supply started to sell the stickers.
A woman by the name of Janet Boudreau who use to work for Intab, an election supply company, designed the sticker to have an American Flag blowing in the wind shortly after in 1987.
Boudreau was shocked that by the number of people who were unaware it was election day and used the 'I Voted' stickers to help raise awareness with hopes that other people who saw the sticker would think 'Oh, I should do that'- TIME.
At the time of the sticker's design, Boudreau was 57 but the sticker concept was really gaining traction during both the 60s and 70s as voting during this time was focused around the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.
So why do we still see them today? According to Donald P. Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University, he says it's thanks to the election of 2000 where the importance of every vote counts was heavily emphasized.
Thus why the 'I Voted' stickers are more visible than they have been in years past.
Source: TIME
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