The votes are in and Albertans will soon have a newly-designed licence plate.

An online poll containing three templates came to a close Tuesday, with 48 per cent of the 164,577 votes cast in favour of option number 2, a photographic image of mountains and prairie grass.

Option 1 and Option 3, both illustrations of Alberta landscapes, garnered 46 and 6 per cent of the votes, respectively.

But the final product could look different from the winning design, said Kathleen Range, spokeswoman for Service Alberta.

“We said if we do hear that Albertans would like some things changed about it, some tweaks or changes would be considered based on their feedback,” said Range.

Some of the criticism is directed at the white space behind the letters and numbers on the design, said Range. And while all three design options replaced the slogan “Wild Rose Country” with the government website alberta.ca, that too is open for discussion, she added.

“We did do a survey back in 2007 ... and people preferred the provincial motto, ‘Strong and free.’”

New plates will have a reflective coating, making them easier to read at night. The Tories faced criticism for using American company 3M, which provided the new technology, to design the plates, instead of hiring an Albertan graphics firm. Range said 3M best understands how to incorporate a functional design.

“First and foremost, the licence plates are on there for safety reasons, they’re for our protection. We need to have something that a law enforcement officer can see and easily read so we make sure unsafe drivers are not on the road.”

A final version of the new design will be revealed in the fall, with the new plates rolling out in spring, 2015, said Range.

The Wildrose Party cancelled its own plate design competition, open to all Albertans, after being boycotted by the province’s graphic design industry. Earlier in the summer, a number of artists told the Herald design competitions devalue their work.

“We were left with not enough high-quality, independent submissions to proceed,” said Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Kerry Towle.

The lack of entries indicates an overall disinterest in this issue, added Towle.

“I don’t think Albertans really see this as a priority,” she said. “This government really is being petty and trying to create a distraction.”

Range said the online poll received a strong response, garnering more than half a million hits within 24 hours of going live.

“People are very passionate about their licence plates and we heard that.”

mkrishnan@calgaryherald.com

Twitter.com/manishakrishnan