Voting begins for MnDOT’s third annual “Name a Snowplow” contest

Betty Whiteout, No More Mr. Ice Guy, Plow Bunyan and Darth Blader are some of the favorites from past years, but what names will make the list for 2022-2022? On Wednesday the Minnesota Department of Transportation opened their 2022-2023 “Name a Snowplow” Contest.

The top eight vote-getters will become MnDOT snowplow names – one named snowplow for each MnDOT district. Much of the Northland falls is District 1. You can see the finalist names and vote at mndot.gov/nameasnowplow. Voting will be open through Friday, Feb. 3. Minnesotans can vote for up to eight names.

Earlier in December, MnDOT asked for residents to submit names. According to MnDOT, they received mor than 10,400 submissions and staff whittled it down to 60 finalists for public voting. MnDOT says they considered a variety of factors when selecting the finalists, including uniqueness, frequency of submissions, Minnesota-specific ideas, and names that would be easily identifiable and understandable to most audiences.

RELATED STORY: MnDOT announces winners of 2022 “Name a Snowplow” contest

The eight winning names and areas where the newly named snowplows will be located will be announced early in February.

This is the third year that MnDOT has invited the public to help name a group of the state’s 800-plus snowplows.