Kansas Governor announces new license plate design after public input
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly today announced the new Kansas standard-issue license plate design, which was chosen by a majority of the public after a week-long voting process that elicited nearly 270,000 votes from Kansans in all 105 counties. Kansans chose the design featuring the Kansas Statehouse dome within a cutout of the state and a yellow, white, and blue gradient background. It received over 140,000, or 53%, of the total votes.
“It’s great to see Kansans’ passion for representing our great state,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “Now, we can move forward on a design that received majority support and get clearer, safer license plates on the streets as soon as possible.”
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The results for the runners-up were:
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19% |
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13% |
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10% |
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5% |
This is the first time the state has allowed public input on the standard tag. Governor Kelly has asked the Kansas Department of Revenue to review their process for selecting license plate designs moving forward.
“The Department of Revenue is pleased to have a design selected so it can promptly get to work issuing the updated plates,” said David Harper, Director of the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles.
Votes cast with non-Kansas zip codes were removed from the vote totals.
The State of Kansas incurred no additional costs for designing the new license plate options or the voting website; existing contracts with Kansas-based firms covered both.
Governor Kelly also addressed the license plate designs that were not part of the voting process but have circulated widely on social media.
“So many of the designs circulated on social media and sent to my office are beautiful works of art but, unfortunately cannot be used given the strict public safety, printing, and branding guidelines the new license plate has to meet,” Governor Kelly said. “Kansans will notice that license plates across the country are moving to simpler designs – that’s because of law enforcement and license plate reader requirements. Our number one priority with these license plates is safety.”