Spreading awareness about voting rights with special T-shirts
PSU students advance in competition

Voting has begun at www.votecommonman.com where eight shirt designs are posted for viewing and voting. Four designs were developed by students at Plymouth State University in Plymouth and four were created by students at Saint Anselm College in Manchester as part of the 4th Annual Common Man Apprentice competition.

The challenge, created by professors at both schools and CEO Jason Lyon of The Common Man family of restaurants in New Hampshire, pits students against each other in a real-world exercise to give students experience in research, development and marketing of a product. In the past, teams created a new dessert recipe for the Common Man restaurants, but this year, the competition came with a primary twist. Students were instead asked to design a first-in-the-nation New Hampshire presidential primary T-shirt that raises awareness about the primary and encourages voters to engage in the process.

"We are very excited about moving to the online election phase of this competition and letting the voters be heard," said Lyon. "Students from both schools took great pride in their designs and gained a renewed sense of the importance of being here in the state to witness the New Hampshire primary."

The wide range of designs up for consideration feature messages and images spanning from historical to patriotic to comical, but all have the same theme - the primary is a cherished tradition in New Hampshire, and citizens should be proud and take part in the process. PSU's designs, which advanced from an initial primary of 15 T-shirts, included a caricature of Uncle Sam; a message about getting the "common man" to the polls; a phrase about New Hampshire being "round one" in the election process; and a slogan that every vote in New Hampshire counts.

Saint Anselm College contenders include a redesign of the Common Man's "plow man" logo being pulled by an elephant and a donkey, clearing the way for the primary; a message asking that New Hampshire voters not be taken "for granite"; a notable quote from former Governor John H. Sununu comparing Iowa's role in choosing Presidents versus New Hampshire's; and a design touting retail politics in New Hampshire and how that process helps "Keep 'Em Honest."

On Nov. 9, votes from www.votecommonman.com, designed by SilverTech of Manchester will be tallied and combined with scores from a panel of judges, and a winner from each school will be selected. The shirts will be mass produced and sold, with a portion of the sales going to Kids Voting in NH, a program of the New Hampshire Political Library in Concord, which prepares young people to be educated, engaged voters.