What “I Voted” stickers look like across the U.S.
Plus: The Red Cross wants to design a digital emblem to protect itself from hackers and militaries
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
What “I Voted” stickers look like across the U.S.
The Red Cross wants to design a digital emblem to protect itself from hackers and militaries
There’s a new first lady statue in Massachusetts
What “I Voted” stickers look like across the U.S.
Happy Election Day to all who celebrate. #IVoted, did you?
At stake are 34 U.S. Senate seats and all 435 U.S. House seats, and voters will also elect governors in 36 states and three territories. More than 44 million Americans cast early ballots, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
Here’s a look at some of the “I Voted” stickers across the country. What does your sticker look like this year?
Sticker of the Year:
The winning “I Voted” sticker in Ulster County, N.Y., was designed by Hudson Rowan, a local student who won over the internet with his image of a six-legged monster with red eyes. Ulster County Board of Elections Commissioner Ashley Dittus — who showed off Rowan’s sticker as a Halloween costume — told me the county ordered 100,000 stickers to distribute. Instagram turned it into a special Election Day sticker. Rowan told Instagram @design he’s been drawing what he calls “spider robots” for years, and his mom was the person who suggested he submit it to the contest. “If you’re feeling discouraged, just try your best and see what happens,” he said. “I didn’t think it was going to come this far and it’s all because I just put myself out there.”
Sticker Trying its Best to Build Trust in the Political System:
Georgia updated its beloved peach stickers in 2020 with the phrase “I Secured My Vote!” Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time that the phrase had a double meaning. “It shows that you voted in person, but it also speaks to election security that’s been a global story recently,” he said. The state ordered several million of the stickers, so they’re expected to be in use in future elections.
Best Sticker for Kids:
Kids accompanying their parents to vote in Durham County, N.C., will get a red, yellow, and blue sticker designed by high schooler Annabel Swansey. The sticker shows the outline of a bull, a longtime local symbol and the mascot of the minor league baseball team. Parents who vote will get the county’s award-winning “No Bull, I Voted” sticker, which was introduced in 2020.
Best Trilingual Sticker:
Early voting stickers in Pima County, Ariz., were designed by Jenni Pagano and say “I Voted” in English, Spanish, and Tohono O’odham, the Native language of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Sticker with the Most Full-Bodied Serifs:
Colorado’s digital “I Voted” sticker was designed by first-time voter and aspiring professional graphic designer Matthew H., who decided to not go with a sans-serif typeface like everybody else.
Best Use of Stickers to Educate Voters about a New Election System:
Alaska introduced ranked-choice voting this year, and to educate voters about it, the state’s Division of Elections held a ranked-choice “I Voted” sticker contest. Under ranked-choice voting, voters rank their favorite candidates, and if no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the lowest vote-getting candidate is eliminated and his or her votes are redistributed to voters’ second-choice candidate. The public voted for their favorite animal stickers made by students ages five to 13 for the contest, and five were put out for the state’s five regions.
The Red Cross wants to design a digital emblem to protect itself from hackers and militaries
Warfare has moved online and the Red Cross is trying to keep up.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, uses its logos in war zones to communicate neutrality and protect its personnel and facilities. These emblems mean “don’t shoot,” the group says, and now they’re looking for a virtual equivalent to guard their servers, computers, smartphones, and data.
The 159-year-old humanitarian organization released a report last week based on two years of research that found making a digital emblem could potentially increase exposure for its computer systems and IT or be misused to falsely mark military assets, but the benefits outweigh the risks.
“In the ‘fog of war’, this additional signal can have real added value,” the report reads. “It will primarily enhance protection for marked entities against the risk of harm caused by law-abiding operators.”
The ICRC recommended the emblem be easily identifiable by militaries, hackers, and other cyber actors; easy and cheap to deploy and maintain at scale; capable of being authenticated; and easy to remove. To give it teeth, it should also be anchored in law, the authors wrote. They suggested adding a new Protocol addition to the Geneva Conventions and enforcing it through national authorities.
The original Red Cross emblem was adopted in 1864. Inspired by the Swiss flag, it’s been changed to keep its workers and volunteers safe in different parts of the world. In 1906, the group adopted a crescent emblem for use in some countries to avoid being perceived as a Christian religious symbol, and in 2005, a crystal emblem was introduced for use in places where the Red Cross and Red Crescent wouldn’t be respected as neutral.
The ICRC said it’s seeking support from states and IT experts worldwide to develop its digital emblem, and the group suggested it either be domain based (as in www.icrc.emblem), IP-address based, or be able to be authenticated by certificate chains.
Earlier this year, the group discovered some of its servers hosting personal data for more than half a million people had been hacked. The servers included data about detainees, unaccompanied minors, and migrants.
“Protecting personal data and ensuring the availability and integrity of our data and systems in the digital space is essential to assist and protect people in the real world,” ICRC Director General Robert Mardini wrote in the report. “To achieve this objective in a digital age we need to be reliable and innovative.”
There’s a new first lady statue in Massachusetts
America’s second first lady just got her own seven-foot-tall statue.