CONCORD, NH (AP) – Whether it’s picturesque or slightly sinister – angry werewolfsomeone? — the designs on the front of the “I voted” stickers are attracting a lot of attention this year. But have you ever thought about the back of your election day souvenir?

“Clothing-safe adhesive, it’s incredibly important,” said Janet Boudreau, a sticker designer. “You can ruin leather, silk, fine wool if you don’t use garment safe adhesive on any sticker that goes on fabric.”

Boudreau should know. She designed the iconic sticker that has been a polling place staple for decades: a simple ellipse with a wavy red, white and blue American flag. And while the company she once owned now has competition, she’s excited about the new versions popping up around the country, many of them designed by kids.

“I’m all for it,” she said. “And I’m all for young people getting involved and understanding the power of voting and trusting it.”

Two years ago, a 14-year-old boy’s stickers of a wild-eyed crab-like creature in a New York county became an online sensation. This year, the smash hit—one of nine designs distributed in Michigan—depicts a werewolf shredding his shirt in front of an American flag.

The 12-year-old designer from Michigan declined an interview request, but other young artists described rewarding experiences.

In Milton, New Hampshire, 10-year-old Grace was treated like a celebrity when she visited the polls for the presidential primary in January and the municipal election in March.

“I definitely saw a difference in everyone’s attitude, like everyone seemed happier and more excited to vote because they were going to get a cool sticker that I made,” she said. “And I really think it’s been great that we’ve had an impact on how people vote and how they feel about voting.”

The New Hampshire contest was open to fourth graders and more than 1,000 entries were submitted. Grace, whose design features the state’s fallen-but-not-forgotten Old Man of the Mountain rock formation, not only attended a pizza party at the Statehouse but has since become pen pals with one of the other two winners.

While Grace settled on her design quickly, 11-year-old Rilynn came up with three versions and had her family vote on their favorite. The winner? An elk standing on a ledge overlooking colorful fall foliage and the state’s tallest mountain.

Like Grace, she was excited to see her stickers in action earlier this year.

“They had a huge pile of stickers and people were literally picking out my stickers,” she said. “When my father got there, he didn’t get one.”

Not all new stickers are designed by kids.

In Denver, incarcerated individuals designed two stickers, one featuring the Colorado flag with a brick building, sun and purple mountains with the “D” in “voted.” The design competition aimed to promote civic engagement and foster a sense of purpose and community.

In King County, Washington, a graphic designer developed a sticker that features the Seattle cityscape at the top and the countryside at the bottom. And a contest open to adults and students in San Francisco was won by illustrator Hollis Callas, who included flowers, birds, a seal, the Golden Gate Bridge and “I Voted” in multiple languages.

“I love it,” said Allison Tichenor, who picked up a sticker when she voted earlier this week. “It’s beautiful, and so is the city.”

Tichenor and others said they like to wear the stickers to remind others to vote.

“I think they’re important because you never know who they might inspire to vote,” said Deanna Long of Raleigh, North Carolina, who went to a Kamala Harris rally Wednesday with a vote sticker on her bag depicting a child riding on a purple mane. unicorn.

“The drawings were fun, and they are from young children who have to rely on others to vote for their needs,” Long said. “We hope the value of voting becomes clearer to younger generations and I hope the artwork inspires them as well.”

In 2019, the US Election Assistance Commission launched a national contest for the best sticker as part of its efforts to honor innovative best practices in election administration. The latest batch of winners includes the Sante Fe County Clerk’s office in New Mexico, where the contest focused specifically on “Future Voter” and “First Time Voter” stickers.

“Conducting elections is difficult, and those ‘I Voted’ sticker contests are both a good way to get the community involved, but also creative and fun,” said Benjamin Hovland, chairman of the Nonpartisan Federal Commission.

Jason Wickersty got creative with the sticker he fashioned from pork roll, a favorite processed meat in New Jersey known as Taylor ham. He shared a photo on the X social platform in 2020 of the flesh sticking to his shirt and explained himself in an email this week.

“We Jersey people are fiercely proud and loyal to our state, and since they haven’t made official ‘I Voted’ pork roll slices yet, I took an x-acto knife to a slice and carved my my own Jersey “I voted for them,” he said.

Although one writer once called her “a veritable Betsy Ross” of “I Voted” stickers, Boudreau wasn’t the first to produce them. But she came to dominate the market. By 2000, about 13 years after she sketched the design at her kitchen table, her election supply company was selling more than 100 million stickers every two years before she sold the company in 2015. Officials there did not respond. to an email requesting current sales. figures.

The stickers started as a way to diversify the company’s offerings and attract new business, said Boudreau, who remembers her 6-year-old son applying the colorful stickers to black-and-white ads she sent to potential customers.

“But it made people happy,” she said. “It opened doors for us and made voters happy.”

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Associated Press reporters Haven Daley in San Francisco, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut contributed.