SALISBURY, N.C. – Charles Day of Rowan County and Kayleon Dortch-Elliott of Cabarrus County created the winning “I Voted” stickers in Rowan-Cabarrus Community College’s Voter Sticker Design Contest and will have their designs distributed by each county’s board of elections during early voting, which begins October 20.
Carolina Vergason created the winning “I Registered” design for Rowan County, and Manuel Antonio Ceuvas Nuñez designed the “I Registered” winner for Cabarrus County. Both are advertising and graphic design students at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.
To increase engagement in the electoral process, the Rowan-Cabarrus Department of Art & Design hosted the nonpartisan contest in conjunction with a voter registration drive on the College’s North Campus. Open to all residents of Rowan and Cabarrus counties, the contest invited participants to create “I Voted” and “I Registered” sticker designs. The winning designs were selected anonymously by board of elections representatives in each county.
“We are honored to have had such a high caliber of entries from across two counties, and we are thrilled with the designers’ support of the electoral process,” said Jenn Gardner Selby, chair of the Rowan-Cabarrus Department of Art & Design. “Stickers are limited edition, so we encourage voters to get to the polls early!”
Day, an eighth-grade student at West Rowan Middle School, created the winning “I Voted” sticker design for Rowan County after his teacher, Kimberly Nance, encouraged her students to participate in the contest. Dortch-Elliott is a local author and speaker in Cabarrus County.
Designs by winners and finalists will be on display at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College’s Bridge Gallery as part of the “Designs of Democracy” exhibition, which opens October 21. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the gallery is located in Building N107 on the College’s North Campus in Salisbury.
A reception will be held in the gallery on Friday, November 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. to celebrate the contest winners and finalists. The reception is free and open to the public. The public also is invited to attend as the Department of Art & Design hosts a film screening of “Willie Velasquez: Your Vote is your Voice” on Friday, October 28 at noon.
Finalists were Jeffrey Chase Raines, Khettie Chanthaheuang, Dorothy Brady, Ryan Branham, Meredith Mozingo, Kevin Leichman, Elizabeth Avalos, Carolina Vergason, MC Dunbar, Brianna Richer, Richard Barbee, Matt Landes, Kaylee Whitley, Sarah Sanchez Aguilar and Naomi Hall-Bruce.
“At Rowan-Cabarrus, we encourage every citizen to exercise their right to vote, and we hope this contest and the distribution of the winning stickers will add to the excitement this voting season,” said Dr. Carol S. Spalding, president of Rowan-Cabarrus.
For more information about Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, please visit www.rccc.edu or call 704-216-RCCC (7222).