Social media was ablaze Tuesday with everyone boasting about how they voted. But in addition to their patriotic bravado was a small, seemingly insignificant complaint — many didn’t get an “I Voted” sticker to show the world they did their part in the democratic process.
“I know it’s silly, but I was looking forward to my ‘I Voted’ sticker. You put up with long lines and polling site chaos because it’s important to vote. And after a pretty frustrating experience, getting the tiny sticker feels like a small victory,” said Danielle Ossher, 25, who voted on the Upper West Side.
Scott Gold, 35, who voted in Greenpoint, echoed that sentiment, albeit with a bit more sarcasm: “No sticker for me. What’s the point of participating in the democratic process if you don’t have a piece of flair to express your smugness?”
Slate points out that the sticky reward is a new addition to the voting process, with it allegedly starting out in 1986. The design of the red, white, and blue sticker — and if they are going to be given out at a polling place — is on a state-by-state basis. Perhaps their aptly titled “Sticker or It Didn’t Happen” slideshow shows the big reason the sticker is so coveted — to prove, in an X-Pro II filtered shot uploaded to Instagram/Twitter/Facebook, that we voted. We want to join in with all of our friend’s similar shots. We feel cheated of the reward if not.
The sticker-less Gold agrees, “The ‘I Voted'” sticker is about as close, in the adult world, as an ordinary citizen can get to achieving a gold star in kindergarten. You
wear it with such buoyant pride, knowing that, not only have you done
good, but that you are good, and now you have something tangible to make sure everybody knows it,” he says.
Metro, doing their due diligence, reached out to the New York State Board of Elections to see where the stickers were to no avail. “You have to speak to someone at the local Board of Elections for an answer to that,” they punted.
Sadly, our calls to the local Board of Elections went unanswered.
Perhaps they were out, replenishing their sticker supply?
