Excessive signage causing clutter, frustration at early voting locations
In an effort to reduce damage and clutter at polling places, the Hamilton County Commissioners passed an ordinance this week limiting the number of political signs allowed at each polling place.
Ordinance 04-11-22-A limits each candidate to one sign per voting location on Election Day and no more than two signs per voting location on Early Voting Days. Furthermore, the signs cannot be larger than 36” by 24”, cannot be placed with metal or wood posts, and cannot be placed in the public right-of-way.
“It looks like a carnival at the polling sites,” Commissioner Christine Altman said. “Some candidates are placing four, five or more signs at a single location. Multiple that by the number of candidates and the problem is clear. The owners of the early voting locations and polling sites on election day have understandably expressed frustration over the number of signs outside their buildings and damage done by large signs.”
Williams
Altman
The ordinance is effective immediately. Early voting locations include Mercy Road Church and the Jill Perelman Pavilion in Carmel, the Roy G. Holland Memorial Park Building and Billericay Park Building in Fishers, the Judicial Center and 4-H Fairgrounds in Noblesville, and City Hall and Cool Creek Nature Center in Westfield.
“Early voting locations make voting easy and convenient for our residents,” County Clerk Kathy Williams said. “But voting locations can be incredibly difficult to secure because of the time and space commitment they require. We do not want to abuse their generosity or inconvenience them with picking up errant signs.”
The ordinance also limits the amount of time the signs can be left at a location. No signs may be placed at a polling place earlier than 12 hours before the polling place opens and must be removed within four hours of a polling place closing on Election Day. Signs not removed within four hours of the polls closing will be deemed abandoned and may be removed and destroyed by the owner of the polling place and either stacked or destroyed.
The statement,”cannot be placed with metal or wood posts” is confusing. How in the world will you be able to substantially place your candidate poster anywhere without securely positioning it into the dirt? I have used candidate sign posts for garden markers or covered the poster/sign frame with poster board for garage sale signs. My garage is full of old candidate signs. Maybe they are worth selling now.