Giant 'I Voted' Sticker Includes All the Hurdles Texans Have to Overcome to Vote

According to the 2022 edition of the Cost of Voting Index, a nonpartisan academic study, Texas now ranks 46th in the nation in terms of the time and effort required of citizens to cast their ballots.

With the election just days away, the Texas Civil Rights Project and creative agency, Preacher, created the 'I … Voted' sticker in an effort to highlight the barriers to the ballot box put in place by the new SB1 law and point Texans to the Election Protection hotline, which helps voters navigate these issues. The twist on the iconic voting sticker is roughly five times longer than the original and includes what it actually entails for Texans to say 'I Voted.' 

The Texas Civil Rights Project is rolling out the campaign during early voting and distributing the sticker on Election Day, to help bring together voters, advocates, and Texans, in the fight against voter-suppression. Voters can find them at select polling locations, where the organisation will be helping Texans overcome many of the hurdles on the sticker and monitoring for any voter suppression efforts. They’ll also be documenting people wearing the sticker and sharing real 'I … Voted' stories across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and eventually, with representatives during the legislative session.

The sticker reads:

I

filled out a voter application,

mailed it to the county election office,

checked to make sure it was approved,

was never mailed an absentee application,

was denied an opportunity to vote by mail,

because i’m not over 65,

disabled, or out of state,

was denied an opportunity to vote in a drive-thru

or submit my ballot in a drop box,

because both are illegal in my state,

so I took unpaid time off,

on what should be a federal holiday,

paid for a sitter,

showed up in person,

with my driver’s license

and my election identification certificate,

just in case,

during a narrow window

that isn’t convenient with my schedule,

avoided obstructing the view of a poll watcher

for fear of penalty under the law,

and then

Voted

“The iconic sticker has typically been something you wear with pride on Election Day - a symbol of civic responsibility, democracy, and freedom,” said PREACHER creative director, Justin Ralph, “But for us here in Texas, it oversimplifies the process, given the hurdles so many voters face. So, we had the idea to turn the sticker into a statement of protest to say, ‘one, these barriers will not stop Texans from being heard,’ and ‘two, voting needs to be much much easier in the state.’”

“At the Texas Civil Rights Project, we are intimately familiar with the layers of laws and regulations that Texans have to wade through in order to cast their ballots, because we’ve been fighting them for years. The law is complicated by design, so we were so excited to launch this creative project to show these complications in a way that is easy to visualise.” said Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Of course, we also want to remind voters that although there are these barriers in place, TCRP is here to help voters cast a ballot that counts.”