It’s safe to say the state of Kansas will have new license plates next year.
Following a weeklong voting process, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced the winner had the statehouse motif in the lower left corner as well as a yellow, white and blue gradient background bottom-to-top.
Residents had a chance to choose one of five designs. The statehouse design got over 140,000 votes, or 53 percent of the total. The runner-up design, a blue-and-white gradient bottom-to-top with single stalks of wheat bracketing the tag number, got 19 percent.
Initially, the plan was to have new plates on vehicles by spring 2024. After public outcry with the first design, the state developed a voting process.
Following the vote, Kelly also addressed a host of license plate designs that went viral on social media — for a variety of reasons — but were not part of the vote process. She says a lot of those designs “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.” Kelly also indicated the need for safety is leading to more simple designs nationwide, highlighting law enforcement and license plate reader mandates.
