WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.120 Welcome to another deep dive. We're really thrilled 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:04.740 to have you joining us today. Yeah, thanks so 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:06.799 much for being here. You know, our mission on 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:11.880 this show is usually to take a... Massive complicated 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.199 concept and kind of break it down into something 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:16.160 digestible for you right something manageable 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:18.420 exactly Yeah, but today we're actually flipping 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.519 the script. We are we're gonna take a seemingly 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:25.600 mundane everyday object I mean something you've 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.280 probably stuck to your jacket or Your dashboard 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:30.739 at some point without a second thought and we 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:34.280 are going to reveal the incredibly deep historical 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:38.579 roots, the wild community dynamics, and the profoundly 00:00:38.579 --> 00:00:42.159 intense rituals hidden right there behind its 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:44.380 sticky backing. It's just the perfect example 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:46.880 of how an ordinary item can carry, you know, 00:00:47.299 --> 00:00:49.619 extraordinary cultural weight. It really is. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.200 To unpack this, we're drawing from a really comprehensive 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:55.399 Wikipedia article. It meticulously traces the 00:00:55.399 --> 00:00:58.000 history, the design evolution, and the surprising 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:01.100 psychological significance of the I voted sticker 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:04.260 in the United States. It's an object so ubiquitous 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:06.439 that it essentially becomes invisible to us. 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:09.799 But when you apply an academic lens to its history, 00:01:10.219 --> 00:01:12.670 you realize it is anything but ordinary. And 00:01:12.670 --> 00:01:14.609 I really want to hook you right out of the gate 00:01:14.609 --> 00:01:17.129 here, listener. Yeah. Because we aren't just 00:01:17.129 --> 00:01:19.829 going to talk about a boring piece of office 00:01:19.829 --> 00:01:22.409 stationery. No, definitely not. By the end of 00:01:22.409 --> 00:01:24.689 this deep dive, you're going to understand how 00:01:24.689 --> 00:01:29.109 this simple one inch piece of paper has spawned 00:01:29.150 --> 00:01:33.730 intense community design battles involving monstrous 00:01:33.730 --> 00:01:36.129 graffiti covered spider skulls. Which is still 00:01:36.129 --> 00:01:37.950 my favorite part of this whole thing. Oh, it's 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:40.109 so good. And you're going to learn how this tiny 00:01:40.109 --> 00:01:43.049 sticker actually required historic marble monuments 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:45.349 to be covered in heavy duty plastic shields. 00:01:45.469 --> 00:01:48.090 Just to survive election day. Right. Just to 00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:50.469 survive. And perhaps most relevant to your daily 00:01:50.469 --> 00:01:52.109 routine, we're going to explore how it became 00:01:52.109 --> 00:01:55.650 the undisputed, uncontested king. of Election 00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:58.709 Day social media. The absolute king. We are talking 00:01:58.709 --> 00:02:00.709 about the fascinating history and the hidden 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:03.530 rituals of the I Voted sticker. What we are really 00:02:03.530 --> 00:02:06.170 looking at here is the mechanism of how a society 00:02:06.170 --> 00:02:09.409 takes a solitary bureaucratic process. Standing 00:02:09.409 --> 00:02:11.530 in a booth and filling out a ballot. Exactly, 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:14.509 and transforms it into a shared cultural event. 00:02:14.729 --> 00:02:17.889 The sticker acts as the bridge between the private 00:02:17.889 --> 00:02:20.229 act of voting and the public declaration of civic 00:02:20.229 --> 00:02:22.550 duty. It's a physical bridge. And the source 00:02:22.550 --> 00:02:24.650 material lays out that evolution beautifully, 00:02:24.830 --> 00:02:27.689 starting long before the invention of the adhesive 00:02:27.689 --> 00:02:30.210 sticker itself. Which brings us to our first 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:34.370 major era. the pre -sticker era. This spans roughly 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:38.810 from the 1920s through the 1970s. Because the 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:41.710 I voted sticker, it didn't actually start as 00:02:41.710 --> 00:02:44.030 a sticker at all. Not at all. It evolved from 00:02:44.030 --> 00:02:47.270 a much broader, much older tradition of election 00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:50.770 day memorabilia. We're talking about metal buttons, 00:02:51.009 --> 00:02:53.849 lapel pins, even specialized clothing. Yeah, 00:02:54.150 --> 00:02:55.930 wearable items. I was looking through the notes 00:02:55.930 --> 00:02:57.949 on the National Museum of American History's 00:02:57.949 --> 00:03:00.250 collection, and they've pinpointed the earliest 00:03:00.250 --> 00:03:03.210 item that serves as a direct predecessor to the 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:05.050 modern sticker. Could you walk us through what 00:03:05.050 --> 00:03:08.879 that object is? Yeah, absolutely. The Smithsonian's 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.280 earliest artifact in this specific lineage is 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:13.979 a metal election day button from the year 1920. 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:17.379 Wow, 1920. It was distributed by the Republican 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:20.340 Party in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the physical 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:23.580 nature of this object is so important. How so? 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:26.479 While this wasn't a cheap disposable paper handout, 00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:30.360 it was a stamped metal pin, something with permanence 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.840 and weight designed to be physically fastened 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:35.979 to your clothing. OK, let's unpack this. I want 00:03:35.979 --> 00:03:39.099 you. the listener to try and imagine the sheer 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:42.039 emotional weight of holding that 1920 button. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:44.800 Yeah. Or better yet, imagine the feeling of actually 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:47.400 pinning that metal to your lapel over a century 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:50.580 ago. The text on this specific button reads, 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:54.060 under the 19th amendment, I cast my first vote, 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:58.110 November 2nd, 1920. It gives you chills. It really 00:03:58.110 --> 00:04:00.169 does. Just think about what that text represents. 00:04:00.430 --> 00:04:02.189 This wasn't some friendly little neighborhood 00:04:02.189 --> 00:04:04.629 reminder to go hit the polls. It was a physical, 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:07.729 wearable declaration of a newly won constitutional 00:04:07.729 --> 00:04:10.030 right. What's fascinating here is how the timeline 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:12.849 of the surviving memorabilia perfectly aligns 00:04:12.849 --> 00:04:15.389 with the broader picture of American enfranchisement. 00:04:15.590 --> 00:04:17.509 Meaning who gets to vote. Right. When you look 00:04:17.509 --> 00:04:19.790 at the historical record, you don't see a steady, 00:04:19.790 --> 00:04:22.490 even production of these items year after year. 00:04:22.629 --> 00:04:26.209 It's not a flat line. No. Instead, you see Massive 00:04:26.209 --> 00:04:28.930 explosions of voting memorabilia that correlate 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:31.750 directly with major expansions of voting rights. 00:04:31.810 --> 00:04:34.350 Oh, that makes so much sense. The 1920 Lancaster 00:04:34.350 --> 00:04:36.810 Button, of course, commemorates the culmination 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:39.290 of the women's suffrage movement. For the women 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:41.910 wearing that pin, it was the ultimate badge of 00:04:41.910 --> 00:04:44.529 enfranchisement. Tangible proof of a hard -fought 00:04:44.529 --> 00:04:47.410 victory. Exactly. It fundamentally changes how 00:04:47.410 --> 00:04:50.290 you view a piece of campaign swag. It transforms 00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:53.839 it from a marketing tool into, like, a personal 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:55.639 victory medal. That's a great way to put it. 00:04:55.819 --> 00:04:57.920 And the source notes that this pattern repeats 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:00.319 itself. There was another massive flourishing 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:03.040 of voting -themed clothing and paraphernalia 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:06.100 decades later. Yes, specifically following the 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:09.379 passage of the 26th Amendment in 1971. And for 00:05:09.379 --> 00:05:11.699 those following along, the 26th Amendment is 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:14.300 what lowered the voting age from 21 down to 18. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:17.519 A shift that instantly brought a massive influx 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:20.360 of young, newly enfranchised voters into the 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:22.860 electorate. A huge demographic shift. Right. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.660 You have a demographic, young adults in the early 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:29.860 1970s, that is traditionally very engaged in 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:32.600 self -expression, political activism, and visible 00:05:32.600 --> 00:05:35.180 counterculture. Totally. When they suddenly gain 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:38.220 access to the ballot box, they are going to integrate 00:05:38.220 --> 00:05:40.819 that participation into their visual identity. 00:05:41.019 --> 00:05:42.959 They're going to sew it into their denim jackets, 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:44.819 pin it to their bags, wear it on their shirts. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.300 It really highlights the underlying psychology 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:52.399 of wearable civic pride. I mean, why do we feel 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:56.439 this deep -seated need to broadcast our participation 00:05:56.439 --> 00:05:58.879 in what is essentially a secret ballot? It's 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.420 a paradox, isn't it? It is. The whole point of 00:06:01.420 --> 00:06:03.480 the American voting system is that no one knows 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:06.279 who you voted for or even if you voted at all, 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:08.899 yet we have this intense desire to prove that 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:11.639 we were there. The secrecy of the ballot is exactly 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.959 why the physical token is so necessary. The vote 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.560 itself is invisible. You go into a private booth, 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:19.259 you make your choice behind a curtain and you 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:21.420 leave. There is no public fanfare in the moment 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:23.220 of action. It's just you and the paper. So the 00:06:23.220 --> 00:06:25.639 button or the clothing or eventually the sticker, 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:29.060 it acts as a visual receipt. It is tangible proof 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:31.779 to your community that you hold power in the 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:34.480 democratic system and that you actively exercised 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:37.779 it. It is a way of reclaiming the public nature 00:06:37.779 --> 00:06:41.180 of democracy without compromising the privacy 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:44.240 of your specific choices. A visual receipt. That 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:46.240 is the perfect way to phrase it. It's the difference 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.500 between buying a carton of milk and finishing 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:51.480 a marathon. One is just a transaction, but the 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:53.600 other is a mark of identity that you want to 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.879 share. Exactly. And it's worth noting that the 00:06:55.879 --> 00:06:58.519 transition from these permanent metal pins to 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:01.720 disposable paper wasn't instantaneous. No, it 00:07:01.720 --> 00:07:04.680 took some time. The source mentions a 1950 article 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:07.439 from the Miami Herald that explicitly references 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:10.980 an I have voted sticker. So the concept of a 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:13.019 temporary badge was starting to percolate in 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.399 the mid -century. The shift from metal to paper 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:18.199 is largely a story of scale and economics. As 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:20.850 most things are. Right. As the electorate grew 00:07:20.850 --> 00:07:24.069 and as the desire to provide these tokens universally 00:07:24.069 --> 00:07:26.629 to every single voter took hold, metal buttons 00:07:26.629 --> 00:07:29.310 just became cost prohibitive for local municipalities. 00:07:29.589 --> 00:07:31.449 You can't hand out millions of metal pins every 00:07:31.449 --> 00:07:34.569 couple of years. Exactly. Paper and adhesive 00:07:34.569 --> 00:07:36.970 offered a way to democratize the receipt itself. 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:40.259 Everyone gets one, regardless of party affiliation 00:07:40.259 --> 00:07:42.339 or budget. Which really makes you appreciate 00:07:42.339 --> 00:07:44.779 the fact that the Smithsonian and other institutions 00:07:44.779 --> 00:07:48.079 continue to meticulously collect these materials 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.420 today. They absolutely do. They aren't just archiving 00:07:50.420 --> 00:07:52.519 the official paper ballots or the mechanical 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:54.899 voting machines. They're actively collecting 00:07:54.899 --> 00:07:58.000 the ephemeral campaign swag. The buttons, the 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.639 pins, the temporary stickers. They treat these 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.600 items as crucial historical artifacts. Because 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.319 they capture the emotional resonance of the electorate 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:08.600 in a way that official government documents simply 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.439 cannot. That's so true. A tally sheet from 1920 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:13.500 shows you how many people voted and who won the 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:16.500 election. But a scratched metal button that says, 00:08:16.860 --> 00:08:19.180 under the 19th amendment, I cast my first vote, 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:21.800 shows you how the fabric of society was permanently 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:24.180 altered and how the people living through it 00:08:24.180 --> 00:08:27.339 actually felt. That sets the stage beautifully 00:08:27.339 --> 00:08:30.100 for the era where this concept goes from being 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:33.639 occasional memorabilia to an absolute nationwide 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:36.259 phenomenon. The boom. Let's move into the 1980s. 00:08:36.649 --> 00:08:40.350 This is the boom. This is the birth of the modern 00:08:40.350 --> 00:08:43.149 icon you and I know today, right? According to 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:46.450 the Wikipedia article the 1980 saw a massive 00:08:46.450 --> 00:08:49.750 almost sudden rise in the popularity of the I 00:08:49.750 --> 00:08:52.950 voted sticker. Yeah, and interestingly It wasn't 00:08:52.950 --> 00:08:56.309 driven by some federal mandate or top down government 00:08:56.309 --> 00:08:58.970 decree. No, not at all. It was driven by multiple 00:08:58.970 --> 00:09:01.649 independent entities just deciding this was something 00:09:01.649 --> 00:09:04.309 people wanted. It was an entirely decentralized 00:09:04.309 --> 00:09:08.250 grassroots boom driven by local civic organizations 00:09:08.250 --> 00:09:10.850 and private businesses. Who were the early players? 00:09:10.929 --> 00:09:13.590 For example, a realtors association in Phoenix, 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:16.330 Arizona began printing their own I voted stickers 00:09:16.330 --> 00:09:19.250 in 1985 to hand out to people. Just on their 00:09:19.250 --> 00:09:21.610 own. Just on their own. Then a company called 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:24.159 National Campaign Supply, based down in Florida, 00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:26.259 claims to have started selling them commercially 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:28.919 a year later in 1986. So you have these different 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:31.480 groups recognizing the psychological value of 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:33.299 the visual receipt we were just talking about. 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:37.779 But 1987 is really the watershed year here. This 00:09:37.779 --> 00:09:40.399 is the year that Independent Tabulation Corp, 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.740 a company in Mooresville, North Carolina, which 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:46.019 is now known as Intab, introduces the iconic 00:09:46.019 --> 00:09:48.240 design. The design. We're talking about the design 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.639 created by the company's president, Janet Boudreau. 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:53.070 I want to talk about the physical design of this 00:09:53.070 --> 00:09:55.970 because I guarantee you, the listener, have worn 00:09:55.970 --> 00:09:59.070 this exact sticker. What are the specific design 00:09:59.070 --> 00:10:01.789 elements that Boudreaux put together? The specifications 00:10:01.789 --> 00:10:04.230 are incredibly precise and they've really become 00:10:04.230 --> 00:10:06.929 the industry standard. Okay. It is a white oval 00:10:06.929 --> 00:10:09.409 measuring exactly one and three -quarter inches 00:10:09.409 --> 00:10:11.809 wide by seven -eighths of an inch tall. Very 00:10:11.809 --> 00:10:14.090 specific. Very. On the left side of the oval 00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:16.549 there is a stylized image of a waving American 00:10:16.549 --> 00:10:19.600 flag and to the right of the flag rendered in 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:22.980 a very crisp blue serif font are the words, I 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:25.600 voted. It is so clean and instantly recognizable. 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:28.039 But the source material points out that Boudreaux's 00:10:28.039 --> 00:10:30.299 design was actually a massive departure from 00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.659 what other people were doing at the time. What 00:10:32.659 --> 00:10:36.240 did stickers look like before 1987? Before Boudreaux's 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:39.039 design, stickers often featured very literal 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:41.799 bureaucratic graphics. What does that mean exactly? 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:45.059 You would see images of little check boxes or 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:48.720 dry illustrations of a paper ballot dropping 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.639 into a wooden box. Oh, wow. They were functional, 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:53.980 but they were entirely focused on the mechanics 00:10:53.980 --> 00:10:56.179 of the task. Literally just a picture of the 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:58.100 chore you just completed. Pretty much. Like wearing 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:00.299 a sticker of a broom after sweeping the kitchen 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:04.110 floor. I checked a box today. That is a great 00:11:04.110 --> 00:11:06.929 analogy. And from a graphic design perspective, 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:11.169 Boudreau's pivot is profound. She moved away 00:11:11.169 --> 00:11:13.730 from literal depictions of the voting mechanics 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:17.570 and embraced emotional patriotic symbolism. The 00:11:17.570 --> 00:11:20.090 flag. The waving flag isn't about the action 00:11:20.090 --> 00:11:22.970 of marking a piece of paper. It's about the feeling 00:11:22.970 --> 00:11:25.870 of American participation. That's a huge distinction. 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:28.889 It is. And choosing a serif font, which traditionally 00:11:28.889 --> 00:11:31.350 conveys authority, history, and institutional 00:11:31.350 --> 00:11:34.679 trust, anchors the emotion with a sense of gravity. 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:37.259 It elevated the act. It tapped into a shared 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.399 national identity rather than a bureaucratic 00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:41.460 process. Exactly. It is just mind blowing to 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:44.159 me that a design from 1987 created by a single 00:11:44.159 --> 00:11:46.980 company president in North Carolina became the 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:50.120 ubiquitous national standard. It really is wild. 00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:52.700 Think about that exact oval, that specific blue 00:11:52.700 --> 00:11:56.159 font, that exact rendering of the flag. Intedict 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.899 still produces and sells this exact design today. 00:12:00.110 --> 00:12:02.549 right now. Still going strong. We are talking 00:12:02.549 --> 00:12:06.070 about nearly 40 years of absolute design dominance 00:12:06.070 --> 00:12:09.740 for a tiny piece of adhesive paper. It speaks 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:12.700 to the power of a perfectly executed symbol. 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:16.039 When a design successfully captures the core 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:19.279 emotional truth of an experience, in this case, 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:22.320 that profound sense of civic duty and belonging, 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:26.139 it doesn't need to be constantly updated or modernized. 00:12:26.220 --> 00:12:28.740 Just works. It transcends its bearer and becomes 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.399 a standardized icon of the American democratic 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:33.539 process. But of course, Americans love their 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:35.659 independence. They do. And while the national 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:38.360 NTAB Oval is the gold standard, state and local 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:39.980 governments are actually the ones who manage 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:41.960 elections in the United States. Right, it's very 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:45.139 decentralized. There is no single federal election 00:12:45.139 --> 00:12:47.580 board running the polling places. It's handled 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:49.980 county by county, state by state. They're the 00:12:49.980 --> 00:12:51.700 ones who purchase these generic stickers from 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:54.120 suppliers. And somewhere along the line, many 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:55.799 of these local governments decided, you know 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:59.480 what, we want to design our own. Which brings 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.500 us to the incredible art of civic duty, the local 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:06.220 flavor and the absolutely wild viral contests 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:09.570 of the modern era. This is a fascinating evolution 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:12.570 because we see the sticker transition from a 00:13:12.570 --> 00:13:15.750 standardized national symbol back into a reflection 00:13:15.750 --> 00:13:18.769 of highly specific local pride. Moving away from 00:13:18.769 --> 00:13:22.149 the generic oval. Exactly. Local election officials 00:13:22.149 --> 00:13:24.610 began to realize that custom stickers could be 00:13:24.610 --> 00:13:27.070 a unique point of connection with their constituents. 00:13:27.590 --> 00:13:30.429 It's a way of saying, your vote matters here 00:13:30.429 --> 00:13:33.370 in this specific community. The Wikipedia article 00:13:33.370 --> 00:13:35.809 lists some fantastic examples of this local pride. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.500 In New York City, their stickers have historically 00:13:38.500 --> 00:13:40.799 featured the Statue of Liberty. Classic. Down 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:42.860 in Georgia, as you might expect, the designs 00:13:42.860 --> 00:13:45.539 often feature a peach. Makes perfect sense. And 00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:48.159 in Travis County, Texas, they use a design depicting 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.240 a blue bonnet, which is the Texas State flower, 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:53.000 and they actually shape the stem of the flower 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.960 itself into a check mark. I love that one. It 00:13:55.960 --> 00:13:58.559 is such a clever, elegant way to merge regional 00:13:58.559 --> 00:14:01.779 identity with the act of voting. And this localization 00:14:01.779 --> 00:14:04.840 goes far beyond just visual landmarks or spate 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:08.960 symbols. It extends to deep inclusivity and accessibility. 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:11.559 Oh, definitely. A perfect example of this is 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:14.279 the Alaska Division of Elections. They recognize 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:16.279 that their electorate is incredibly diverse, 00:14:16.659 --> 00:14:19.220 spread across vast geographies, and they reflect 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:21.860 that in their memorabilia. I read in the source 00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:24.820 notes that Alaska prints their stickers in a 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:26.440 ton of different languages. Could you run through 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:29.200 that list? because I think it's staggering. Yeah, 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:32.000 they print I voted stickers with text in 10 different 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.340 languages to serve their population. Ten. Ten. 00:14:34.940 --> 00:14:38.039 The list includes English, Spanish, Koyukon, 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:42.220 Gwich 'in. Aleut, Tagalog, Aleutique, Northern 00:14:42.220 --> 00:14:45.639 Upeak, Nunavak Kupig and Yupik. When you hear 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:48.460 that list, Koyukon, Gwich and Yupik, you are 00:14:48.460 --> 00:14:51.240 really struck by the sheer vastness of Alaska 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:54.139 and the incredible linguistic diversity required 00:14:54.139 --> 00:14:56.740 just to make elections accessible and representative 00:14:56.740 --> 00:14:58.460 of the people who actually live there. It's a 00:14:58.460 --> 00:15:01.220 huge undertaking. It serves as a powerful reminder 00:15:01.220 --> 00:15:04.840 that the American voter is not a monolith. The 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:07.179 experience of voting in an indigenous community 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:10.259 in rural Alaska is vastly different from voting 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:14.080 in Manhattan, and the stickers reflect that reality. 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.360 It's a beautiful reflection of the electorate. 00:15:16.539 --> 00:15:19.860 But alongside these official government designed 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:22.919 local stickers, we've also seen a massive rise 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:25.419 in community design contests, particularly since 00:15:25.419 --> 00:15:27.659 the 2010s. This is where it gets really fun. 00:15:27.779 --> 00:15:30.559 It really does. The Election Assistance Commission 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.480 or the EAC, which is an independent federal agency 00:15:33.480 --> 00:15:35.740 that helps coordinate and support local election 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:38.679 officials, has heavily promoted these sticker 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:41.000 design contests. They've gamified it a bit. They 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.399 have. They even feature a specific category for 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:46.330 creative and original I voted stickers. in their 00:15:46.330 --> 00:15:48.610 annual Clearinghouse Awards, or Cleary Awards, 00:15:49.009 --> 00:15:51.389 which they've been running since 2019. Here's 00:15:51.389 --> 00:15:53.610 where it gets really interesting, because when 00:15:53.610 --> 00:15:55.809 you open up the design process to the general 00:15:55.809 --> 00:15:57.970 public, and specifically to grade school and 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:00.370 middle school students, you get results that 00:16:00.370 --> 00:16:03.409 are wonderfully chaotic. Very chaotic. Forget 00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:06.929 the dignified Statue of Liberty. Forget the elegant 00:16:06.929 --> 00:16:10.149 Texas Blue Bonnet. Let's talk about Ulster County, 00:16:10.169 --> 00:16:14.250 New York in the year 2022. The infamous 2022 00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:17.870 contest. They held a design contest and a 14 00:16:17.870 --> 00:16:20.250 year old artist named Hudson Rowan submitted 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:23.470 a design. I want to get the description exactly 00:16:23.470 --> 00:16:25.669 right. You have to. The source material quotes 00:16:25.669 --> 00:16:27.970 a piece from The Guardian to describe this art. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:31.500 It says it is a skull -like head with bloodshot 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:34.600 eyes and multicolored teeth sitting atop turquoise 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:36.919 spider legs. It's quite an image. And the words 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:39.700 I voted are scribbled across it in a frantic, 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:43.019 almost unhinged graffiti -like font. It is a 00:16:43.019 --> 00:16:45.940 wildly abstract, almost monstrous departure from 00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:48.340 traditional themes of patriotism. To say the 00:16:48.340 --> 00:16:51.019 least. There are no waving flags, no bald eagles, 00:16:51.220 --> 00:16:54.379 no serene state flowers, just a bloodshot spider 00:16:54.379 --> 00:16:57.100 skull. And it went completely viral. It won the 00:16:57.100 --> 00:16:59.320 contest and a landslide. People loved it. Can 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.000 you imagine walking out of your polling place, 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:03.059 feeling that solemn historical weight of civic 00:17:03.059 --> 00:17:06.039 duty and the poll worker smiles and hands you 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:08.660 a sticker of a screaming multicolored spider 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:11.099 skull to put on your jacket? It's such a great 00:17:11.099 --> 00:17:14.019 contrast. I find it absolutely hilarious and 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:17.180 strangely beautiful. But from an academic perspective. 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:20.740 Why do election commissions lean into this? Why 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:23.960 encourage a spider skull over a traditional flag? 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:26.460 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:28.920 EAC encourages these contests because they are 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.559 an incredibly potent tool for community engagement. 00:17:31.779 --> 00:17:34.500 How so? Think about the mechanics of a youth 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:37.559 design contest. When you invite the public to 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.079 participate, and especially when you invite a 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.440 14 year old middle school student to design the 00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:45.160 official sticker, you are accomplishing something 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:46.960 crucial. You're getting them involved early. 00:17:47.019 --> 00:17:50.420 Yes. You are getting the next generation deeply 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.539 invested in the electoral process years before 00:17:53.539 --> 00:17:55.660 they are legally allowed to cast a ballot. You 00:17:55.660 --> 00:17:57.960 are demystifying the whole process. You're making 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:01.059 elections fun and relevant to a teenager. Precisely. 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.779 A 14 -year -old cannot legally vote for a mayor 00:18:03.779 --> 00:18:06.700 or a president, but Hudson Rowan certainly participated 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:10.480 in the 2022 election in a highly visible, highly 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.380 impactful way. He left his mark. And everyone 00:18:13.380 --> 00:18:15.779 in Oster County who voted for his design in the 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:19.200 contest or who proudly wore that spider skull 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:22.720 on Election Day felt a localized sense of ownership 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:24.880 over the process. They were part of the inside 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:27.680 joke. Right. It takes the dry bureaucracy of 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:30.160 voting and turns it into a community art project. 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:32.619 It builds civic habits early. It really makes 00:18:32.619 --> 00:18:35.259 you wonder, what does your local sticker look 00:18:35.259 --> 00:18:37.539 like? Yeah. What's yours? If you're listening 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:40.220 to this, next time you go to the polls, really 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:42.720 look at the sticker they hand you. Does it represent 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:45.680 your specific region? Is it a local landmark 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:48.779 designed by a high school student? Or are you 00:18:48.779 --> 00:18:52.759 getting the classic 1987 Intob waving flag oval? 00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:55.880 You're all valid. Whatever it is, it's the result 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:58.819 of a very specific choice made by your local 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:01.160 election officials to try and connect with you 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.299 on a community level. And that connection doesn't 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:05.279 end the moment the sticker is placed on a lapel. 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:07.740 No, it doesn't. The source material takes us 00:19:07.740 --> 00:19:10.170 into an entirely different realm next. Which 00:19:10.170 --> 00:19:13.230 brings us to the final and perhaps most profound 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:16.390 section of our deep dive. The modern ritual surrounding 00:19:16.390 --> 00:19:18.849 the I voted sticker. This is where things get 00:19:18.849 --> 00:19:22.369 really deep. Because this tiny adhesive badge 00:19:22.369 --> 00:19:24.750 has transcended its original purpose of simply 00:19:24.750 --> 00:19:27.970 proving that you voted, it has become the centerpiece 00:19:27.970 --> 00:19:31.670 of incredibly complex social and even quasi religious 00:19:31.670 --> 00:19:34.630 rituals. The word ritual is not an exaggeration 00:19:34.630 --> 00:19:37.089 here. Let's talk about the Susan B. Anthony grave 00:19:37.089 --> 00:19:39.500 ritual. This is a remarkable phenomenon. The 00:19:39.500 --> 00:19:42.920 Wikipedia article references a 2020 paper by 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:45.299 a religious studies scholar named Jordan Conley, 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.500 who extensively analyzed this phenomenon. In 00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:51.000 Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, lie 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:53.539 the gravestones of Susan B. Anthony and Mary 00:19:53.539 --> 00:19:56.019 Stafford Anthony. Over the years, a practice 00:19:56.019 --> 00:19:57.980 developed where voters would visit the cemetery 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:00.779 on election day and physically place their I 00:20:00.779 --> 00:20:03.839 voted stickers directly onto Susan B. Anthony's 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:06.619 marble headstone. It's a striking visual phenomenon, 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:09.460 and Connolly's academic analysis of this practice, 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:12.079 specifically looking at the 2016 presidential 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:15.059 election and the 2018 midterms, is fascinating. 00:20:15.420 --> 00:20:17.880 What was her main takeaway? She argues that these 00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:20.140 stickers are functioning as a modern form of 00:20:20.140 --> 00:20:23.000 a vote of offering. A vote of offering. For those 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:24.500 of us who might not be familiar with religious 00:20:24.500 --> 00:20:26.619 studies terminology, could you break down what 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:29.160 a vote of offering actually is in modern terms 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:30.920 before we get into the historical comparisons? 00:20:31.140 --> 00:20:34.819 Yeah, of course. At its most basic level, a vote 00:20:34.819 --> 00:20:37.420 of offering is an object left in a sacred space 00:20:37.420 --> 00:20:41.039 for religious or spiritual purposes. In modern 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:43.180 times, you might think of lighting a candle in 00:20:43.180 --> 00:20:45.880 a cathedral, leaving a small stone on a Jewish 00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:49.819 grave, tossing a coin into a wishing well, or 00:20:49.819 --> 00:20:52.259 even leaving flowers and teddy bears at the site 00:20:52.259 --> 00:20:54.680 of a public tragedy. That paints a very clear 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:57.609 picture. It is a physical item that represents 00:20:57.609 --> 00:21:01.150 a prayer, a wish, or a tribute. The object stands 00:21:01.150 --> 00:21:03.349 in for the person who left it. Okay, that makes 00:21:03.349 --> 00:21:05.589 perfect sense. So how does Connolly connect this 00:21:05.589 --> 00:21:08.589 modern act of leaving a sticker on a grave to 00:21:08.589 --> 00:21:11.549 historical religious practices? Connolly specifically 00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:14.170 compares this graveside practice to the ancient 00:21:14.170 --> 00:21:16.849 Greek traditions surrounding Asclepius, who was 00:21:16.849 --> 00:21:19.529 the Greek god of medicine and healing. The healing 00:21:19.529 --> 00:21:22.750 god. Right. At the ancient sanctuaries of Asclepius, 00:21:23.069 --> 00:21:25.609 people who were sick or injured would leave votive 00:21:25.609 --> 00:21:28.849 offerings. Often these offerings were small sculptures 00:21:28.849 --> 00:21:31.190 depicting the specific body parts that were ailing 00:21:31.190 --> 00:21:33.390 them. Like a physical representation of the paint. 00:21:33.630 --> 00:21:36.829 Yes, a carved foot, a clay hand. Ponley points 00:21:36.829 --> 00:21:39.410 out that these ancient offerings served a dual 00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:42.170 purpose. On one hand, they were devotional, they 00:21:42.170 --> 00:21:44.289 honored the god. But on the other hand, they 00:21:44.289 --> 00:21:46.970 were a means of recognizing a specific affliction 00:21:46.970 --> 00:21:49.650 and actively enacting an appeal for healing. 00:21:49.849 --> 00:21:51.609 It's fascinating to look at this purely through 00:21:51.609 --> 00:21:54.750 an academic lens. And we should note... Regardless 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:56.769 of where anyone sits on the political spectrum, 00:21:57.390 --> 00:21:59.549 Conley's research points out that the 2016 election 00:21:59.549 --> 00:22:02.690 felt uniquely stressful and divisive for voters 00:22:02.690 --> 00:22:05.190 across the board. It was a very tense time. The 00:22:05.190 --> 00:22:07.069 source material quotes her study as describing 00:22:07.069 --> 00:22:10.309 the 2016 election season as painfully regressive 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:13.829 and irreparably divisive in so many ways. So 00:22:13.829 --> 00:22:17.009 in that heightened emotional context, the sticker 00:22:17.009 --> 00:22:19.609 evolved into a sort of coping mechanism for the 00:22:19.609 --> 00:22:21.829 electorate. That is the core of her argument. 00:22:22.059 --> 00:22:24.579 Because the election was perceived by many of 00:22:24.579 --> 00:22:26.940 these visitors as uniquely traumatic for the 00:22:26.940 --> 00:22:29.559 nations, the act of leaving the sticker took 00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:32.259 on that dual purpose she identified in the ancient 00:22:32.259 --> 00:22:35.039 Greek sanctuaries of Asclepius. The devotional 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.619 and the healing. Exactly. The sticker on the 00:22:37.619 --> 00:22:39.740 grave was of course a devotional offering to 00:22:39.740 --> 00:22:42.279 a pioneer of women's suffrage, thanking her for 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:45.009 the right to vote. But it also functioned as 00:22:45.009 --> 00:22:48.390 a marker of affliction and a literal appeal for 00:22:48.390 --> 00:22:50.789 healing and restoration for a divided nation. 00:22:51.190 --> 00:22:53.289 This raises an important question about how we 00:22:53.289 --> 00:22:56.890 assign value to everyday objects. It completely 00:22:56.890 --> 00:22:59.509 recontextualizes what this one -inch sticker 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:02.190 is capable of meaning. It really does. We started 00:23:02.190 --> 00:23:03.869 this deep dive talking about a little badge that 00:23:03.869 --> 00:23:07.089 just says, hey, I did my civic chore today. Then 00:23:07.089 --> 00:23:09.410 it became, I am proud to be a participant in 00:23:09.410 --> 00:23:11.170 American democracy. And then it becomes something 00:23:11.170 --> 00:23:14.230 else entirely. Right. Here, in the quiet context 00:23:14.230 --> 00:23:17.369 of this cemetery in Rochester, the sticker transforms 00:23:17.369 --> 00:23:20.650 into a prayer. It becomes a physical plea for 00:23:20.650 --> 00:23:23.589 the health of the Republic. That is an incredibly 00:23:23.589 --> 00:23:25.990 heavy emotional burden for a mass -produced piece 00:23:25.990 --> 00:23:29.210 of paper to carry. It is a profound shift in 00:23:29.210 --> 00:23:32.210 utility, and the scale of this ritual in 2016 00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:34.730 was staggering. Give us the numbers. The source 00:23:34.730 --> 00:23:37.950 notes that approximately 12 ,000 people visited 00:23:37.950 --> 00:23:41.420 Anthony's grave on Election Day 2016. Think about 00:23:41.420 --> 00:23:45.019 the logistics of that. 12 ,000 people traveling 00:23:45.019 --> 00:23:47.759 to a cemetery, bringing their freshly acquired 00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:50.900 stickers as offerings. I am just in awe of that 00:23:50.900 --> 00:23:55.400 visual. Imagine 12 ,000 little waving flags and 00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:58.700 local spider skulls completely covering a historic 00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:01.180 grave. It completely blanketed the stone. In 00:24:01.180 --> 00:24:03.599 fact, the practice grew so incredibly popular 00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:07.069 and the sheer volume of adhesive was so overwhelming 00:24:07.069 --> 00:24:10.069 that it actually began to physically damage the 00:24:10.069 --> 00:24:12.130 porous marble headstone. The marble couldn't 00:24:12.130 --> 00:24:14.930 take it. By October of 2020, the cemetery officials 00:24:14.930 --> 00:24:17.809 actually had to install a clear plastic shield 00:24:17.809 --> 00:24:20.289 over the headstone just to protect it from further 00:24:20.289 --> 00:24:22.069 degradation. They had to intervene. They put 00:24:22.069 --> 00:24:24.210 the shield up so that the monument would survive, 00:24:24.329 --> 00:24:26.589 but they intentionally left it accessible so 00:24:26.589 --> 00:24:28.450 that people could still participate in the ritual 00:24:28.450 --> 00:24:31.089 by placing their stickers on the plastic instead 00:24:31.089 --> 00:24:33.759 of the marble. The fact that architectural intervention 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.839 was required to accommodate the ritual speaks 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:39.140 volumes. It perfectly illustrates how a personal, 00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:42.900 individual action placing your own single sticker 00:24:42.900 --> 00:24:46.700 aggregates into a massive, undeniable collective 00:24:46.700 --> 00:24:49.220 statement. The accumulation is the point. Exactly. 00:24:49.619 --> 00:24:52.180 The sticker ceases to be an individual receipt 00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:54.720 and becomes the building block of a collective 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:56.980 monument. And that aggregation brings us to the 00:24:56.980 --> 00:24:59.940 most widespread modern ritual of all. the digital 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:02.759 ritual. Ah, yeah. Because for every person who 00:25:02.759 --> 00:25:04.880 can physically travel to Rochester, New York, 00:25:05.039 --> 00:25:07.240 there are millions more participating in a very 00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:09.799 similar dynamic online. The Election Day selfie. 00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:12.480 You have probably taken one. I know I've definitely 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:14.599 taken one. Most of us have. It's a staple of 00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:16.880 modern voting. The source material highlights 00:25:16.880 --> 00:25:19.980 a 2023 paper by social media researcher Chelsea 00:25:19.980 --> 00:25:22.640 Budkowski, who analyzed the ritual qualities 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:25.240 of selfies on Election Day, specifically looking 00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:27.920 back at the 2016 election cycle. She conducted 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:30.940 a massive content analysis of Election Day selfies 00:25:30.940 --> 00:25:33.640 posted on Twitter using election -related hashtags. 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:36.579 What did her research uncover about how we use 00:25:36.579 --> 00:25:38.920 these images? The methodology and the scale of 00:25:38.920 --> 00:25:41.240 her research are really telling. She starred 00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.539 with a massive data set of three million election 00:25:44.539 --> 00:25:47.930 -related tweets. Three million? From that enormous 00:25:47.930 --> 00:25:51.410 pool, she identified and analyzed a representative 00:25:51.410 --> 00:25:55.089 sample of 2 ,000 selfies. And what she found 00:25:55.089 --> 00:25:57.509 fundamentally challenged the idea of what an 00:25:57.509 --> 00:26:00.250 election selfie is. What did she find? She discovered 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:03.089 that the eye voting sticker was not just an incidental 00:26:03.089 --> 00:26:05.849 background detail in these photos. It formed 00:26:05.849 --> 00:26:09.130 the core vital component of the image and its 00:26:09.130 --> 00:26:11.890 ritual importance online. Get this statistic 00:26:11.890 --> 00:26:14.829 listener. Out of those sampled selfies, over 00:26:14.829 --> 00:26:19.650 80 % featured an I voted sticker. 80%. 80%. It 00:26:19.650 --> 00:26:21.829 appeared more frequently than pictures of polling 00:26:21.829 --> 00:26:24.109 place signs. It appeared more frequently than 00:26:24.109 --> 00:26:26.269 pictures of actual ballots or voting machines. 00:26:26.630 --> 00:26:28.869 And crucially, it appeared far more frequently 00:26:28.869 --> 00:26:31.509 than any visual markers of specific party affiliation. 00:26:31.670 --> 00:26:34.789 It was the focal point. The sticker is the undisputed 00:26:34.789 --> 00:26:37.289 dominant visual of digital civic participation. 00:26:37.569 --> 00:26:40.190 It really emphasizes the concept of social proof 00:26:40.190 --> 00:26:43.920 in the digital age. In the physical world, wearing 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:46.339 the sticker on your lapel tells the people you 00:26:46.339 --> 00:26:48.299 pass on the street or the cashier at the grocery 00:26:48.299 --> 00:26:50.680 store that you participated in the system. It's 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:52.940 a localized signal. But in the digital realm, 00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:56.299 the selfie amplifies that social proof exponentially. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:26:59.680 It bridges the physical localized act of going 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.240 to a community center or a school gymnasium to 00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:06.200 vote with our highly curated global digital identities. 00:27:06.380 --> 00:27:09.039 It broadcasts it to everyone. It is the ultimate 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:11.220 badge of honor for the internet era, proving 00:27:11.220 --> 00:27:14.160 to our entire extended network of friends, family, 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:16.160 and followers that we showed up and did our part. 00:27:16.599 --> 00:27:18.599 So what does this all mean for us as voters? 00:27:19.420 --> 00:27:21.519 We started this journey with a heavy metal pin 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:25.000 from 1920 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, worn proudly 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.940 by a woman who was voting for the very first 00:27:26.940 --> 00:27:29.509 time under the 19th Amendment. Right. We watched 00:27:29.509 --> 00:27:32.089 that concept transition to paper and explode 00:27:32.089 --> 00:27:34.910 into a nationwide boom in the 1980s standardized 00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:37.710 by a woman in North Carolina into an iconic one 00:27:37.710 --> 00:27:40.869 inch waving flag. The Intab design. We saw that 00:27:40.869 --> 00:27:43.970 national standard morph into a canvas for local 00:27:43.970 --> 00:27:47.369 pride, ending up as a 14 year old's wildly viral 00:27:47.369 --> 00:27:50.589 spider skull in upstate New York. A true masterpiece. 00:27:50.750 --> 00:27:53.589 We witnessed. 12 ,000 of these little stickers 00:27:53.589 --> 00:27:56.470 plastered over a pioneer's grave like ancient 00:27:56.470 --> 00:27:59.450 Greek votive offerings requiring a plastic shield 00:27:59.450 --> 00:28:03.519 to save the marble. And finally, we saw it absolutely 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:06.799 dominate our digital feeds, appearing in 80 % 00:28:06.799 --> 00:28:08.880 of all election selfies. When you look at the 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:10.920 entire timeline, it becomes clear that the I 00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:13.920 Voted sticker is so much more than office stationery. 00:28:13.980 --> 00:28:16.819 It really is. It is the physical embodiment of 00:28:16.819 --> 00:28:20.039 a deeply personal yet completely collective civic 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:23.200 ritual. It is the connective tissue of the American 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:25.720 electorate, adapting and evolving with every 00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:28.380 generation to meet our psychological need to 00:28:28.380 --> 00:28:30.640 be recognized as participants. in our own governance. 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:33.039 It proves that the human need for a tangible 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:35.279 connection to our democratic institutions is 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:38.240 as strong today as it was a century ago, which 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:40.420 actually leads me to a final provocative thought 00:28:40.420 --> 00:28:41.960 to leave you with today. Okay, let's hear it. 00:28:42.140 --> 00:28:43.740 As we were looking through the gallery notes 00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:45.779 and the source material, there are a couple of 00:28:45.779 --> 00:28:48.240 fascinating entries that point toward the future 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.579 of this ritual. There is a digital version of 00:28:50.579 --> 00:28:53.160 the sticker distributed by California in 2020. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:55.440 Right, for people voting from home. And there 00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:57.940 is a specific absentee voting sticker mailed 00:28:57.940 --> 00:29:01.900 out by Virginia in 2008. As the actual mechanics 00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:04.460 of voting continue to evolve further and further 00:29:04.460 --> 00:29:07.099 away from physical polling places and deeper 00:29:07.099 --> 00:29:09.779 into mail -in ballots and digital realms, how 00:29:09.779 --> 00:29:12.000 is our need for physical proof going to adapt? 00:29:12.250 --> 00:29:14.349 That's a great question. If we are increasingly 00:29:14.349 --> 00:29:16.930 voting in isolation from our kitchen tables or 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:19.829 our smartphones, the communal aspect of the polling 00:29:19.829 --> 00:29:23.369 place disappears. Exactly. Will the act of covering 00:29:23.369 --> 00:29:26.230 Susan B. Anthony's grave eventually come a purely 00:29:26.230 --> 00:29:29.849 digital phenomenon, a virtual shrine in the metaverse? 00:29:30.069 --> 00:29:32.630 Or is there something so fundamentally human 00:29:32.630 --> 00:29:35.269 about our psychology, so deeply rooted in our 00:29:35.269 --> 00:29:37.769 need for tactile reality, that we will always, 00:29:37.769 --> 00:29:40.150 always crave that tiny one inch physical badge 00:29:40.150 --> 00:29:42.890 of honor to stick on our shirt? to prove to the 00:29:42.890 --> 00:29:44.910 physical world that we showed up. You might always 00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:47.549 need that receipt. It is something for you to 00:29:47.549 --> 00:29:49.690 mull over the next time you cast a ballot and 00:29:49.690 --> 00:29:52.609 peel the backing off that little sticker. Thank 00:29:52.609 --> 00:29:54.309 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:29:54.769 --> 00:29:55.750 We will catch you next time.