Sourced from NPR | July 30, 2022 by Jonaki Mehta and Justine Kenin
Hudson Rowan never considered himself an artist up — until receiving so much attention this month.
This is the 14-year-old's breakthrough piece.
If this sticker doesn’t motivate you to vote… what WILL? | Hudson Rowan
"It has crazy bulging eyes, mangled-looking hair, and is looking off into the distance, like a crazy spider with spider robot legs shooting out of the sides," he said. It definitely gives off a chaotic vibe.
WHY did Hudson draw this you may ask? His mom asked if he wanted to enter the "I Voted" sticker contest in Ulster County, New York. His Spider robot humanoid is what he thought voters would want to display to flex when they have done their civic duty.
Ashley Dittus, the commissioner of the Ulster County Board of Elections, was floored. Her reaction was that she will never forget when she saw it. She instantly smiled and had to show it to other people. She couldn't keep it to herself. She said most of the submissions she had seen since the contest started last year included red, white, and blue; or maybe images of mountains to represent their county in the Catskills — but she’d never seen anything like this before.
Dittus said after Rowan's design became a finalist, it went viral on social media. He even has the votes on the county website to show it.
The county only has 180,000 residents, and 125,000 voters -- but Rowan's submission has received more than 225,000 votes. That's 94% of the total.
On Friday, Rowan was officially declared the winner of the contest. The people of Ulster County can come collect their prize sticker on the November election day (as well as vote, of course).
Dittus has great hopes for Rowan's artwork.
It has gone beyond the scope of Ulster County and that's great because the more people are looking and exploring voting, not just New York State residents, but all over the place, that's how we get democracy to survive and thrive.
Dittus has received many calls about this sticker, even people asked about purchasing merchandise with Rowan's creature on it.
"The whole thing is really a very chaotic thing," he said. "And all that is going on in the world right now, I feel like that a picture kind of represents it ... the whole COVID thing, and then wars going on, and then gun violence and politics."
Rowan is thrilled that it is starting conversations about an institution he considers is essential.
“Everyone needs to vote.
”
If people just stop voting, thinking their vote doesn’t matter ... then yeah, that’s bad.
