Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
After a frenzy of public backlash to the new Kansas state license plate proposed in November, Governor Laura Kelly initiated a short submission opportunity for new proposals. Now Kansans have been given a choice between what some are calling “five equally boring options.”
Kansans are now able to vote at KSPlates.kansas.gov until 5 p.m. on Dec. 15. Residents will be able to choose from five plate designs created by a Kansas marketing firm, in partnership with Kansas Tourism.
The announcement of the selected plate is slated for Dec. 18. The five options offer variations such as a lighter blue, the state outline, wheat, and sunflowers.
“Kansans have offered their thoughts on our state’s next license plate through social media and elsewhere, even sending potential designs to my office,” Kelly said in a press release. “Many of these designs were beautiful, but we’re moving forward with this voting process to ensure law enforcement can easily read the selected license plate and to get safer plates on the streets as soon as possible.”
But most Kansans are still not satisfied with their options. One alternative design in particular has gone viral on social media. Ben Tegtmeier, with BT Creative in Eudora, posted his plate design on Facebook, and got over 400,000 engagements in the first 24 hours.
The design features rolling hills, bison, sunflowers, the state motto, monument rocks and more.
“It just started snowballing and today has just been wild,” Tegtmeier said. “I’ve had people reach out from all over the state so, they’re liking it. I got a lot of messages saying if this was on there, they would have voted for this instead. I had a lot of people that I read that said I just voted for something, but I didn’t like any of them.”
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Tegtmeier said he aimed to represent the whole state, from the Flint Hills to the Monument Rocks, keeping the official guide regulations in mind.
Many Facebook users have been posting and commenting frantically to try and get Tegtmeier’s design accepted, even sending it to Gov. Kelly personally.
–Lee Hartman | Metro Voice
