The Ulster County Board of Elections is sitting on a stash of voting gold – its unconventional “I voted” sticker that took the nation by storm, estimated to be handed out to 90,000 voters during this election.

It came in an email submission from 14-year-old Hudson Rowan. He’s an Ulster County teen that was flexing his creative juices over the summer to illustrate how he thinks the current political landscape makes people feel.

Ulster County Democratic Commissioner Ashley Dittus said she and her Republican colleague, John Quigley, knew they had a viral sensation as soon as they saw it.


What You Need To Know

  • The Ulster County Board of Elections is expecting 90,000 voters this election season

  • Each voter will go home with one "I Voted" sticker designed by Hudson Rowan

  • The BOE has 100,000 stickers waiting for those participating in the midterm elections

“They were all in the back of my car, and I said to the printer, I said ‘you have no idea how many people want this,’ ” Dittus said. “It was the first submission we got, so as soon as I got the email, I opened it, I saw it, I printed it out and walked it around to every desk and showed everyone that works here.”

It was a no-brainer for the board of elections. The design netted more than 200,000 votes in the contest, along with some national recognition.

“We’re telling the election inspectors ‘one per person!’ We have to make sure we control the sticker distribution so that we don’t run out and that everybody will have their chance to have it,” said Dittus.

As it turns out, for some, getting out the vote can come down to getting a sticker.

“They’re apparently a lot more important than I ever knew, because people get very upset if you run out or don’t have any,” said Rebecka Semmelhack, an Ulster County poll worker. “There was one year when we had none, and literally 100-plus people came up and asked ‘How come [I] can’t get a sticker?’ ”