Raleigh County Clerk Scott Van Meter (from left); Reese Childers, 14, of Shady Spring, Raleigh County; and Secretary of State Kris Warner are shown, on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals at the Capitol in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. Childers, an eighth-grader at Shady Spring Middle School in Raleigh County, was the winner of the first statewide "I voted" sticker contest.
Raleigh County Clerk Scott Van Meter (from left); Reese Childers, 14, of Shady Spring, Raleigh County; and Secretary of State Kris Warner are shown, on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals at the Capitol in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. Childers, an eighth-grader at Shady Spring Middle School in Raleigh County, was the winner of the first statewide "I voted" sticker contest.
W.Va. Secretary of State's Office
A 14-year-old art and history buff won West Virginia's first-ever "I voted!" sticker contest.
Reese Childers, 14, an eighth-grader at Shady Spring Middle School in Raleigh County, won the contest out of 1,100 submissions to design a sticker to be distributed to voters on Election Day. Reese's winning design is a pen-and-ink drawing featuring some of the Mountain State's most notable objects:
Black bear
Butterfly
Cardinal
Honeybee
New River Gorge Bridge
Rhododendren
West Virginia state outline
"My social studies teacher introduced the competition to me one day in class," Reese said Wednesday. "I decided to do all the West Virginia symbols [which] really captures West Virginia's true natural beauty."
Reese plans to attend college to become and art therapist.
"I love to do art all the time," Reese said. "I was very shocked and I was very proud that I got this opportunity to win."
West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner kicked off the state's first-ever Sticker Contest in December. With the support of county clerks, more than 1,100 eighth-grade student artists entered the contest. The contest was open to any eighth grader in any public, private, charter or home school program.
Entries were received from 42 counties. Each county clerk participating in the contest selected a first-place winner. Those 42 first-place winners were then placed into four regional contests.
Reese won the overall competition out those four regional winners. She and her winning design were introduced during a national Civic Learning Week event, sponsored by the West Virginia Civics Coalition, at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals at the Capitol Complex in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä on Wednesday.
What's next
Michael Queen, communications director for the Secretary of State's Office, said 12,000 of Reese's stickers will be printed and distributed at Raleigh County polling places during the May 12 primary.
Several other county clerks will print their county's winning design for their polling places.
