5 April 2016

Lawn signs, loathed by grumps, might help win close elections

If you’re thinking about using lawn signs in your political campaign, you’ll want to read Logicosity’s wry analysis of the technique. They might make a positive difference in a close election.

Provided, of course, the signs are designed to be read by people motoring down the street at 45 feet per second or faster.

The fewer words, the better. Nothing more is needed than the last name of the candidate and the office sought. In the cluster of signs at the right, on Highway 2 in Kalispell, Rehberg’s sign is easy to read. Steve Lavin’s is not.

Outdoor advertising agencies have standard tables of letter sizes that are legible at given speeds and distances.

Lawn signs are endorsements. They provide some name recognition, and in larger campaigns, may provide a measure of a candidate’s ability to organize.

I love fields full of good lawn signs. They tell me that Democracy is alive and well.

But to a certain genre of grumps, political lawn signs are the dandelions of democracy, visual pollutants to be controlled by unconstitutional durational limits on their display. Flathead County repealed its durational limits, but similar laws remain on the books of many communities. Democrats seem to favor durational limits more than Republicans do.