5 Facts About the 'I Voted' Sticker

The popular stickers at local polling places — a freebie printed in red, white and blue that reads "I voted" — have a long history in American politics.

Here are five facts about the "I Voted" sticker, seen by some as a civic duty badge of honor.

1. They've been around for decades, noted Georgia State University political scientist Mary Stuckey, in an interview with U.S. News.

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National Campaign Supply said it started distributing the stickers nationwide in 1986, NPR reported.

2. The stickers gained popularity in 2000 during the infamous and disputed "hanging chad" election between George W. Bush, who went on to become president after a historic Supreme Court challenge, and Al Gore, Stuckey said. Gore later parlayed his political fame into global work as an environmental activist.

3. They are making a comeback in 2016 because of what is seen as a likely tough election cycle — and because they are on some fronts newly cool.

“People want the evidence they were there. It’s a community-building thing – ‘Look at me, I’m part of the solution!’” Stuckey told U.S. News.

4. You don't have to wait until November 2016 to get some. You can buy the stickers online, including on the site electionstickers.com.

You might have to get your own as some jurisdictions have stopped using them because of the costs, noted Policy Mic, which said they cost about 15 cents per sticker. "It is worth noting that ensuring that one of these stickers would be available to each of the United States's 230 million voters would cost over $34 million," the website said.

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5. While some polling places don't use them, calling them a thing of the past, others have embraced a growing multicultural electorate and are printing them in multiple languages, ABC News 7 in Chicago reported. In suburban Cook County, Illinois, the stickers are also multi-colored.

First used in April 2015 elections, voters seemed to like them, one official said. "We have gotten a lot of great feedback already," said Courtney Greve, a spokesperson for Cook County Clerk David Orr.

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