Milk Maid
As the election drew near, I took all the necessary steps to vote. I made sure I was registered, even though Minnesota is one of few states that accept same day voter registration.
Then, I had a hand in making several advertisements for the paper for different candidates. When I make the ads, it’s fun to talk to the candidates.
You learn a lot just from visiting with them. I also like going to their websites and social media sites to get a feel of what their campaign is all about.
Of course, there are several candidates that have their ads already pre-made so we just have to pop those in.
If you ever visit the Mascot’s website, you’ll notice the ads you see in the paper are also on the website, usually in color. It’s an added bonus for advertisers as I link up the website to their ad.
It’s neat for us here at the Mascot because the website then tallies how many “hits” or times people click on specific ads.
Despite the over abundance of political ads everywhere, you’d actually be surprised how many people click on the political ads. The same goes for the articles that we post online.
Two weeks ago, we featured our election guide and I really never know how that’s going to go over.
Again, I was really surprised with how many hits those articles received. The most popular were the Minneota mayor and city council candidates along with the Minneota School Board and Minnesota House of Representatives District 16A race.
Even though, I was surprised that most of the voter guide articles garnered a lot of attention. It really shouldn’t surprise me though.
In the 2016 election, Minnesota had the highest voter turnout in the country with 74.7% of eligible voters casting their ballots.
Those figures just go to show that not only do Minnesotans vote, but they take their time to become informed voters. To brush up on some of the races I didn’t know anything about like the State Auditor and Secretary, I did some quick reading on Tuesday. Besides exercising my right as a citizen to vote, I really enjoy getting the sticker.
You know what I’m talking about.
The “I Voted” sticker. When I was a little kid, I remember going to the polls with my grandparents and parents and they always gave my brother and I stickers.
WCCO-TV actually did a story on Monday night about the origins of the sticker for their “Good Question” segment. In 1989, the Minnesota legislature passed a law that said the “Secretary of State distribute stickers to the county auditors which contain the words ‘I Voted’ and nothing more…” It goes on to say election judges can offer that sticker to voters at the polling place.
In 2018, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office bought 6.5 million “I Voted” stickers to distribute to Minnesota counties.
According to Ben Petok, spokesperson for Secretary of State Steve Simon, that cost $24,000 or 0.37 cents per sticker. I was surprised at the figure, but then again, if Minnesota has the highest voter turn out, they need to be prepared. Voting is great for using your voice to choose our elected leaders. Now it’s over, we can trade the political ads for Christmas ones.