The design was chosen by a majority of the public after a weeklong voting process that elicited nearly 270,000 votes from Kansans in all 105 counties, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Kansans chose the design featuring the Kansas Statehouse dome within a cutout of the state and a yellow, white and blue gradient background. It received over 140,000, or 53%, of the total votes.

“It’s great to see Kansans’ passion for representing our great state,” Kelly said in the release. “Now, we can move forward on a design that received majority support and get clearer, safer license plates on the streets as soon as possible.”

Public input on a license plate design was solicited after the state received widespread negative feedback on a plate design that closely resembled New York license plates and contained colors associated with the University of Missouri.

This is the first time the state has allowed public input on the standard tag. Kelly has asked the Kansas Department of Revenue to review its process for selecting license plate designs moving forward.

“The Department of Revenue is pleased to have a design selected so it can promptly get to work issuing the updated plates,” said David Harper, director of the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles.

Votes cast with non-Kansas ZIP codes were removed from the vote totals, the release said.

The State of Kansas incurred no additional costs for designing the new license plate options or the voting website; existing contracts with Kansas-based firms covered both.

Kelly also addressed the license plate designs that were not part of the voting process but have circulated widely on social media.

“So many of the designs circulated on social media and sent to my office 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 said in the release. “Kansans will notice that license plates across the country are moving to simpler designs – that’s because of law enforcement and license plate reader requirements. Our number one priority with these license plates is safety.”