MNDOT’s 2022 ‘Name A Snowplow’ Contest Is Ready For Your Vote

The nominations are in and now its time to pick some winners.  The Minnesota Department of Transportation's second annual Name A Snowplow Contest is ready for open voting.

Just before the holidays, MNDOT asked for nomination submissions.  The transportation agency received "nearly 11,000 creative name submissions" during the month of December.  Staff and leadership at MNDOT reviewed each submission on the list, consolidated similar names, and then narrowed the list down to the 50 finalists that are now ready for public voting.

Voting is open right now on the Minnesota Department of Transportation's website under a special page created just for the contest.  General voting will be open through midnight on Wednesday, January 26.  Individuals are able to vote once and they can select up to eight of their favorite names.

The contest will select a winning name for each of MNDOT's eight districts.  That final selection is set for early February.

This is the second year that the Minnesota Department of Transportation has held a contest like this.  Last year, eight creative names were given to the spotlighted snowplows across the state.

Being that this is the second year, some worried if a lot of the nomination submissions would be repeats.  MNDOT reports that the "majority of this years' finalists are new names" - but the 2022 finalists "do include a small group of names that were runners up in 2021".

When selecting the final list of nominations, staff from MNDOT based their selections on "creativity, uniqueness, frequency of submissions, Minnesota-specific ideas, and names that would be easily identifiable and understandable to broad audiences".