“If there is ever a year to have an unhinged werewolf ripping its shirt off as the “I Voted” sticker … it’s 2024,” Derek Dobies, the chief of staff of the Michigan A.F.L.-C.I.O.
If any republicans committing fraud because “they have to be doing it too” get one of these stickers, I will buy the one you get if you try to vote illegally a second time.
Pronounced like "hope" without the "h", it is indeed a local (Midwestern U.S.) "expression.
It is, mostly, a "shorthand apology".
"Ope, just gonna squeeze right past you and grab the ranch" (dressing) or "Ope, grab the butter while you're up whydoncha?", or "Ope, I spose it's about that time."
In the context of that sticker, it's more like a "sorry, not sorry" but less intense and more polite.