APS students spotlighted for designing ‘I Voted’ stickers

Albuquerque Public Schools students design ‘I Voted’ stickers

While only a few APS students have a chance to vote, the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office collaborated with the school district to give students of all ages a chance to get involved in the civic process during this year's election.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When you go to your local polling place, you may look forward to what you get after you cast your vote.

“We’ve got parents and grown-ups in the parking lot talking about these things. We’ve got people that voted and said ‘I want that one over there.’,” said Linda Stover, the Bernalillo County Clerk.

Stover is talking about 12 “I Voted” stickers that Albuquerque Public Schools students designed for this year’s election.

“We called APS and, gosh, they were right on top of it. Teachers jumped on-board, administration jumped on-board. We had 278 students that gave us stickers,” she said.

Out of those 278 submissions, they chose 12 of them to print onto stickers distributed at the polls. One of the student designers is Audrey Vanderlip, a Del Norte High School student.

“I just think that’s amazing. I remember the day they told me I was a finalist, like one of the top 12 and I thought just that in itself is amazing,” she said.

Vanderlip said it wasn’t hard to find inspiration for her design.

“When I was talking to my family they were saying, ‘try to make something that’s really iconic,’ and I was thinking there is nothing more iconic than our own New Mexico flag,” she said.

Stover said they tried making these “I Voted” stickers back in 2020 but the pandemic delayed that until now. She said the response was bigger than she expected.

“These kids are interested in elections. They’re interested in what’s going to happen for the future,” Stover said.

Vanderlip said the future is one thing she will focus on as she will soon be able to vote.

“Now I’m like, ‘I got to make sure I study up on all the candidates. [I have to] make sure I’m making informed choices because that’s really why it’s so important to vote, is to express our opinions and ideas,” she said.

See all of the stickers and learn more about the design contest here: