A Dearborn Heights Teen's Art Will Be on Every Michigan Ballot Line This November

When Michigan's Secretary of State office opened its annual "I Voted" sticker design contest this spring, it had no idea it would pull in nearly four times as many entries as the year before. More than 2,000 designs poured in from across the state, and by the time public voting closed in June, over 53,000 votes had been cast to narrow the field to nine winners. One of them belongs to Ahmad Bazzi, a senior at Crestwood High School in Dearborn Heights. Bazzi's design, which depicts Michigan's natural scenery, was selected as one of three winners in the high school category, alongside entries from students in Saginaw and Remus. His sticker will now be distributed at polling places statewide for the November 3 general election — meaning a design drawn by a Dearborn Heights teenager will land on the lapels, jackets, and tote bags of voters from the Upper Peninsula to the Ohio border. The city of Dearborn Heights didn't let the moment pass quietly. At a recent City Council meeting, Mayor Mo Baydoun and City Clerk Lynne Senia formally recognized Bazzi in front of his family, calling his win a point of pride for both the city and his school. "His creativity and artwork will become part of Michigan's voting experience this November, giving thousands of voters the opportunity to see a design created by one of our city's residents," the city said in a statement honoring him. The contest itself is a relatively new tradition. It was created in 2024 by the Collegiate Student Advisory Task Force, a group of college students who advise the Secretary of State's office, as a way to make voting feel a little more festive and to get young people engaged with elections early. This year's jump in participation — more than 2,000 submissions compared to roughly 480 in the inaugural year — suggests the idea has caught on. Designs were screened to ensure they were original, non-AI generated, nonpartisan, and simply had to include the phrase "I voted." For Dearborn Heights, a city with one of the largest concentrations of Arab American residents in the country, Bazzi's selection carries a particular resonance. It's a small but visible marker — a teenager from a heavily Arab American community representing the entire state on something as universally shared as an Election Day sticker. Nine winners were chosen across three categories: elementary/middle school, high school, and a general entry open to all Michigan residents. Bazzi's fellow high school winners were Lenore Coil of Saginaw and Keirsten Sturm-Richmond of Remus. As Michigan voters head to the polls on November 3 for what's shaping up to be a closely watched midterm cycle in the state, millions of them will walk away with a small circular reminder of their participation — and for voters paying close attention, a reminder that the person who designed it grew up just outside Detroit, finishing high school this year with his artwork now part of a piece of civic tradition.