It’s great Kansas gets to vote on new license plates. I sure hate one of the choices | Opinion

I don’t know which new Kansas license plate design I like best. But I definitely know which one I hate most.

Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday morning unveiled five new plate designs for public approval, just a few weeks after backtracking in the face of a backlash to her administration’s announcement of a midnight-blue-and-yellow design that a few Kansans thought looked too much like Mizzou’s colors.

“You’ll notice these designs incorporate public feedback, including wheat, sunflowers, and lighter blue,” she wrote online. “They’re also easy for law enforcement and traffic systems to read, because every second counts in an emergency.”

Are the new designs any good? The public will decide that. Mostly they seem inoffensive.

Well, except for one design anyway. I’ll get to that in a second. Let’s describe the choices first:

• One plate looks pretty much exactly like the original, much-hated design that Kelly announced a few weeks ago — only instead of a so-midnight-blue-that-it-looks-black stripe across the top, there’s a lighter shade of blue. Nobody will think of the Missouri Tigers now.

• Another keeps that light blue stripe across the top, but features a white body for most of the plate. Sunflowers adorn both sides of the plate number.

• A third design makes use of the fact that Kansas and license plates are shaped almost exactly the same, with the upper right-hand corner painted to show where the Missouri River marks the state’s border.

• The fourth features the midnight blue stripe and wheat stalks on either side of the plate number.

• And the fifth is highlighted by a silhouette of the State Capitol dome on the left-hand side.

That’s the one I hate the most, incidentally.

Why? Because, as a general rule, it’s annoying to think that a government building — even a very nice government building — represents the Sunflower State in all its breadth and variety.

We make airplanes and wheat and are the object of endless “The Wizard of Oz” references! John Brown got his start here! So did Amelia Earhart? Why would the place where a bunch of legislators do their work be the thing that symbolizes “Kansas?”

Only government bureaucrats would think that’s a good idea.

Also: You might have noticed that a lot of states have domes for their capitol buildings. Yes, ours has the excellent “Ad Astra” statue on top — but it’s too tiny on the license plate to stand out as a defining feature when you’re rumbling down the highway at 70 mph.

It’s easy to take potshots, though. Somebody in Topeka had to come up with five designs meant to appeal to the entire Kansas public. That’s probably an impossibility.

But the public will decide, one way or the other. Online voting at KSPlates.kansas.gov — you can vote for your favored design as many times as you like — will continue until 5 p.m. Friday. Gov. Kelly will announce the winner on Monday. We’ll see if there’s another backlash this time.

I’ve told you the one I dislike, but I’d like to know which one you like best. Vote in our survey below and share your opinion.

Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. He lives in Lawrence with his wife and son. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist.