Hillsborough ​Student Artist Creates New 'I Voted' Sticker

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — Every year, the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office conducts voter registration drives in high schools and holds an art contest to encourage civic engagement among our students.

"I speak to a lot of students in our county, and they really do care about our democracy and are excited for their 18th birthdays when they become eligible to vote in our elections," said Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer."Whether it's registering to vote or creating artwork to encourage voting, we've seen terrific engagement from our students."

Latimer's office has been holding its art contest since 2014, but this year was different. Instead of posters, Latimer challenged high school students to design a new "I Voted" sticker and promised to hand out the winning sticker to voters during early voting in the 2022 primary and general elections.

More than 70 students entered the competition with seven chosen as winner by elections office staff.

The seven student artists were recognized in front of the Hillsborough County School Board and received prizes from the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Caspers Company McDonald's.

Winning the contest was senior Iliana Otero of Sumner High School.

Her artwork will be featured on 80,000 McDonald's bag stuffers and in other outreachs efforts encouraging the community to vote.

Finalists are:

• Nyira Mitchell, Sickles High School
• Maria Gomez Pardo, Blake High School
• Cassidy Chandler, Blake High School
• Peyton Lawson, Blake High School
• Alexa Weston, Brandon High School
• Lauren Cunningham, Newsome High School

In addition, Plant, Strawberry Crest and Sumner high schools were recognized for having the most successful voter registration drives this year.