Featuring a flying unicorn and an extremely exuberant early voter, 11-year-old Shannon Fisher won the hearts of thousands of voters to take home the winning design in the Wake County Board of Elections sticker design contest. The rising 6th grader from Neuse River Middle School will now have her original design featured in the 2024 elections at early voting polling places throughout Wake County.
“The enthusiasm and support for these students have been wonderful to see – nearly 7,000 people cast votes!” said Wake County Elections Director Olivia McCall. “We have so many talented young people in our community and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who participated.”
After launching their first ever sticker contest, the Wake County Board of Elections received more than 100 creative “I Voted Early” designs from middle and high school students across the county. Staff were then tasked with the difficult job of using contest guidelines to narrow the selection to 10 finalists. Click here to see the Top 10 finalists.
Then, at the end of two weeks of public voting, featuring comments like, “Wow, that was a hard vote! The artwork was amazing!!” and “So hard to vote for just one! They were all great!”, Fisher’s design edged out her fellow designers earning 28% of the vote. A close second was 10th grader Thomas Bradley of Grace Christian School and his hand-drawn squirrel and the clever pun, “I voted squiearly.”
Wake Elections staff were excited to launch this initiative to help inspire future voters to get involved in their local government and learn more about the elections process. The elections team is already busy preparing for the Town of Cary municipal election and potential City of Durham primary election on Oct. 10 and for the Nov. 7 municipal elections of 2023. But they plan to have Shannon’s stickers printed and ready in time for the March 2024 primaries, which are expected to bring record-breaking turnout.
Visit ReadyToVote.com for more information about upcoming elections and voting.
About Wake County Board of Elections
The Wake County Board of Elections is responsible for conducting all elections held in the county. The board establishes election precincts and voting sites; appoints and trains precinct officials; prepares and distributes ballots and voting equipment; certifies ballots cast in elections and investigates any voting irregularities.
The Wake County Board of Elections also maintains voter registration and voting records for more than 800,000 voters. To learn more about Wake County Board of Elections, follow us on Twitter and Facebook or contact us at 919-404-4040.
