Voting begins on new Texas license plates

AAS article 2/4/08
Voting begins on new Texas license plates
Pick among four new designs plus current cowboy-shuttle style.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, February 04, 2008

HOUSTON — Texans who think their license plates are boring will get a chance to do something about it starting today.

The Texas Department of Transportation is conducting a weeklong vote at www.txdot.gov that could decide whether Texans keep the current plate or choose one of four new designs.

Whatever Texans choose, the new plates will add a seventh digit because the state is running out of six-digit combinations, said Rebecca Davio, TxDOT's director of vehicle titles and registration.

Houston Chronicle 2/5/08
Texans jam license plate voting Web site
The omission of Houston from one design gets corrected
(snip)
So many people hit the agency's site in the first 30 minutes, it crashed, according to Kim Sue Lia Perkes, spokeswoman for TxDOT's Vehicles, Title and Registration division.

"We're really excited people want to vote. It tells us we've done the right thing to put it out there," Perkes said. "However, not all of the more than 20 million registered Texans can vote at once. So we've had a few glitches, people have slowed down the system."

By 6:45 p.m., more than 75,000 people cast votes for their favorite new plate design.

AAS article 2/11/08
New Lone Star license plate selected by Texans
Unofficial winner features mountains, sky and white star.

By Matt Presser
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, February 11, 2008

With 1.1 million online votes tabulated, we have an unofficial winner for a new Texas license plate design.

Texans cast 455,000 votes for Lone Star Texas, a red, white and blue plate that features a mountain range, blue sky and a white Lone Star, the winner pending verification of the vote.



Texans cast 455,000 votes for Lone Star Texas, a red, white and blue plate that features a mountain range, blue sky and a white Lone Star, the winner, pending verification of the vote. Natural Texas, which features a meadow of wildflowers, was a distant second place with about 294,000 votes.

The week-long vote, which ended at noon today, offered visitors to the Texas Department of Transportation Web site the choice of keeping the current plate or choosing one of four new designs.