Louisiana’s “I Voted” sticker features a special new character this year. It’s a smiling crawfish named Mark de Ballot.
He’s a tuxedo and top-hat wearing cartoon, with giant red claws and black dress shoes. Millions of voters will be greeted by him as they head to the polls this election cycle.
William Joyce is the Shreveport-based artist behind this year’s sticker. He’s also an Emmy and Oscar-award animator and author, with credits on the original "Toy Story" movie, among others.
His books and characters have been adapted into shows on Netflix and short films. His newest children’s book, Rocket Puppies, will roll out this month.
He spoke with producer Matt Bloom.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Matt Bloom: William, thanks so much for being here.
William Joyce: It's my pleasure. I love to talk about Mark de Ballot.
Bloom: Did you ever think you'd be this involved in an election cycle?
Joyce: I'll tell you, it's a backdoor way of being very involved, which is what I prefer. But no, but I'm tickled pink that this is happening, and I've always enjoyed those stickers.
Bloom: Right, right. I mean, I feel like a lot of people wear them as a badge of honor, and I mean, some people vote just to get the stickers sometimes.
Joyce: I have been told that by representatives of our state, and I understand it because whenever I go vote and they give me the sticker, I pop it right on and I feel smug and awesome for the day. It's like I did the civic thing I'm supposed to do.
Bloom: Well, you've worked on everything from the original "Toy Story" film, right? To your own children's books. How did this collaboration with the Louisiana Secretary of State come about?
Joyce: The Secretary of State's office called, and it turns out that we have a mutual friend, my best friend from junior high school or middle school they call it now, and I get on this Zoom and they're like, we'd love for you to do the I voted sticker and this year, and we don't know if you have time and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I will make time because that just sounds like a win-win. I couldn't think of a downside to it. And they told me the only thing is it has to be apolitical. And I'm like, okay, it should be. And instantly I thought, well, what's the most apolitical thing in the world? And I thought about a crawfish. I mean, I'm like, I just don't know if there are politics in crawfish land.
Bloom: I was going to ask, where did the idea for Mark de Ballot come from? And how did you end up picking a crawfish?
Joyce: Well, I looked at past stickers and there were pelicans. There's the blue dog. And I thought, ‘I don't want to get heavy handed with it.’ I just want something like when you vote, you just feel good about. I mean, you've made your choice about what you want the future to be. And I've never gone and voted just gone, ‘Oh, drad. I wish I hadn't done that.’ I mean, it's always you feel like bursting into a song or something.
Bloom: I'm looking at a picture of him now, and he does have one foot up as if he's walking to the poles or walking somewhere. He's marching triumphantly forward and the coattails are flapping behind him. So it does give him that sense of, ‘I'm going to vote.’
Joyce: Hearkening back to my children's books and the movies I've worked on, I tend to anthropomorphize the meaner creatures of the world, the things that crawl and slink and skidder around, and my books are filled with incredibly dapper mice and rabbits and squirrels and birds and all this kind of stuff.
But I had never drawn a crawfish in anything other than its shell. And so immediately I thought about James Montgomery Flagg’s, ‘I want you poster’ from World War II, the image that defined the idea of Uncle Sam.
And (Mark de Ballot) has got a little Uncle Sam action going on because Uncle Sam had the tails and he had the top hat and he's got the spats on. All of a sudden, I could just see him being in the French Quarter. He's either on his way to vote or he just voted and he just feels great.
Bloom: How do you want voters to feel when they see Mark the Ballot after they've voted this election cycle?
Joyce: It's a crazy election cycle, right? The craziest I hope we ever go through. I hope there's never another one like this. And I think the pandemic the last few years have been just a little nutty and weary some, and I want people to get this spring back in their steps, and I hope Mark makes him feel that way. He's got a spring in his step and whatever happens, let's just keep eating crawfish, even if they're this dapper guy.
