The winning entry in Ulster County's sticker contest. (Ulster County, N.Y.)
New York’s Ulster County will give out only one ‘I Voted’ sticker per voter, and only after they’ve submitted a ballot.
That’s because this year’s design, created by a 14-year-old boy, has become a must-have souvenir.
Hudson Rowan’s spider-robot mashup was the runaway favorite in the contest, gaining 228,000 votes in a county that has only 180,000 residents.
In his interviews since the image went viral, Hudson has used the word “chaotic” to describe his entry and said it encapsulates his view of current events. “Right now with COVID and then the wars going on and then all the gun violence, politics right now — I don’t know. I feel like that picture kind of represents it,” he told National Public Radio.
The contest was open to artists ages 13 to 18. Several of the runner-up entries — with more conventional patriotic imagery — were handed out at an Aug. 23rd special election, but the winner is being reserved for next week’s balloting. The elections commission ordered 100,000 of the stickers.
Ulster County includes the communities of Kingston and New Paltz and a swath of the Catskills.
