Earlier this summer the woods were full of mushrooms but in recent weeks a different colorful ground-hugging species has erupted in New Hampshire: Campaign yard signs.
The approach of the Sept. 11 party primaries seems like a good time to remind ourselves of a few salient facts about the most grassroots (quite literally) part of political advocacy.
Q. Good grief, there are a lot of these signs around. Do they even work?
If they don’t, a lot of money is being wasted.
The cost of these signs depends on their type – coroplast? polycoated posterboard? polybag? – as well as the number of colors used, whether they include art, and the number of signs bought at one time.
But even the cheapest and smallest signs cost close to $2 each, plus another buck or so for the wire holder to push into the grass. Big signs can cost $20 apiece or more, not counting shipping.
Buying them is a major expense for campaigns. Even so, there appears to have only been one effort to scientifically study their effectiveness.
A paper published in the March 2016 edition of the research journal Electoral Studiesdiscussed four randomized trials involving candidates for Congress, mayor and a county office in a few different states, and a campaign directed against a candidate. Signs were placed in some precincts and not in others, with different designs.
The conclusion was that on average, signs increased a candidate’s voting share by 1.7 percent points. That’s not much but it’s not nothing: Plenty of elections are decided by less than 1.7 percentage points.
So it seems that yes, they do work. A little bit. Just not very efficiently.
Q. They seem to be everywhere. Are they really everywhere?
They’d better not be.
While campaign signs can legally be placed in an awful lot of places, there are limits.
On private land, as you’d expect, the owner’s permissions is necessary. The same goes on a lot of public land: You can’t stick your sign next to the front door of town hall unless the selectman say it’s okay, for example.
You also can’t put them on utility poles. In fact, you’re not supposed to attach anything to utility poles, despite what owners of lost pets think.
Rules for land alongside roads, the most coveted real estate for eyeball-seeking campaigns, are more complicated.
New Hampshire Department of Transportation guidelines can be summarized like this: Signs can’t be placed on interstates or their on- and off-ramps, but they can go next to all state roads unless the signs are deemed to create a traffic hazard, usually by blocking the view of traffic or road signs or signals.
There’s a caveat, however: “Signs will be removed to perform maintenance. This is prime mowing season, so it is best not to place signs in an area with long grass that is likely to be mowed in the near future,” a DOT email read.
Signs removed by road crews are stored at the local public works garage or police department. If nobody gets them, they get tossed a week after the election.
Q: Speaking of removing signs, can I remove one if I think it’s ugly or in the wrong place?
No, unless you’re removing it from your own property.
State law is pretty clear about this. The only folks who can remove a sign are the campaigns that placed it, the owner of the property, law enforcement or highway crews.
If you really think a sign should be moved, call the headquarters of the party of the candidate.
Q: How about after the election – can I rip them up then?
Most candidates are required to remove all their political signs from public land by the second Friday following the election, which in this case will be Sept. 21. They can stay on private property if the owners don’t mind.
Because this is a primary, however, there’s an exception: A candidate who wins the primary and will be on the ballot in November can leave the signs up.
If a removable sign is still around after the legal deadline, call your local police or road crew.
Q: Let’s say some campaign signs accidentally end up in the trunk of my car after the election. Is there anything useful I can do with them?
Not much, frankly.
If you can turn them inside out you can use them to advertise your next garage sale. If they’re plastic, they make a passable snow sleds for kids on the neighborhood hill. But that’s about it.
One thing I can tell you: They make terrible Frisbees.
(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)
