Why a cartoon crawfish named ‘Mark d’Ballot’ could be the secret to voter turnout in Louisiana
July 10, 2024
Why a cartoon crawfish named ‘Mark d’Ballot’ could be the secret to voter turnout in Louisiana
Vote! If not for your country, for the sticker.
Every major election year, voter turnout in the U.S. is dependent on a myriad of factors, from the candidates themselves to individual voters’ identities, education levels, and political leanings. Effectively encouraging citizens to get to the polls (especially considering that the U.S. historically lags behind other counties in this area) is always a topic of heated debate. However, here at Fast Company, we think we’ve cracked the code—and the answer involves a jovial cartoon crawfish tap-dancing his way out of the polling place and straight into our hearts.
Louisiana recently revealed its official “I Voted” sticker for the upcoming November election, and it’s nothing short of a modern masterpiece. True to the tastes of its home state, the sticker features a happy-go-lucky crawfish dressed to the nines in a navy blue tailcoat, dress shoes, and top hat. The sticker was designed by William Joyce, an artist and animator best known for his work on such classics as Meet the Robinsons and Robots. At the ceremonial unveiling, Joyce announced this charming character’s name: Mark d’Ballot.
“The directive was simple. [The sticker] must be easy to read and non-partisan,” Joyce wrote on Instagram. “So of course I drew a dapper crawfish strolling with confidence into a bright future. If only it were so simple. But, I know that my feelings about voting are in fact that simple. I feel terrific when I vote. I take a stand, do my part and hope for the best.”
Naturally, the internet has quickly adopted Mr. d’Ballot as an icon and American hero. “The literal *only* thing i want to talk about today is mark de ballot, the dapper crawfish on the new ‘i voted’ sticker that louisiana voters will get this november,” one popular tweet on X (né Twitter) reads.
This isn’t the first time that an “I Voted” design has taken Twitter by storm; anyone who was logged on in July 2022 will recall the haunting (yet, somehow, timely) psychedelic spider design that won a local contest in Ulster County, New York. That year, Fast Company even commissioned a series of its own stickers from design and branding firms. Yet, despite countless other artists putting their own spin on the post-voting treat, Joyce’s Mark d’Ballot still manages to occupy a crustaceous genre of his very own.
Joyce closed out his commemorative Instagram post by asserting that, while Democracy can be messy, “I offer my crawfish as a reminder that it can also be joyful.”
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