Yard Signs
YARD SIGNS
Yard signs provide great name recognition to candidates and therefore should be an important tool in an effective grassroots campaign strategy for local candidates as well as for candidates at the county, state, and federal levels. In most cases, signs should be positioned perpendicular to the road so that they can be seen by those going in either direction, rather than facing out towards the road were they can only be seen by those standing directly in front of the signs. Ask Republican supporters to place signs in their yards during the month before the election, concentrating on those who live on streets with lots of traffic. But also put up signs on public property along roadsides. The best public locations for signs are at busy intersections. It doesn’t matter if there are already 50 other signs at a good location, place your sign there too. Take the time to securely position the sign so that it won’t be blown over easily and so it can be seen from as many directions as possible. Use gloves if you are putting up alot of signs. Start placing signs about 30 days before Election Day. Once all your signs are set up, you should patrol your sign locations a couple times a week to make sure that they are not knocked down, or vandalized, or that someone else has not placed another sign to block your sign. You should re-position signs that have been blocked. If you persistently fix your damaged signs, saboteurs and vandals will usually tire of doing mischief. Each municipality has its own rules for putting up signs on public property. Find out what the rules are in your community and abide by them. After the election, make sure you pickup all the signs that you set up within a week after election day.
-Dave Majernik, RCAC Vice Chair
Designing Yard Signs
As local elections quickly draw near, this is good time to think about designing yard signs for local candidates. You can design a miniature scale version of your sign on a computer using a word processing program like MS-Word or Adobe Acrobat. A well-designed campaign sign is very important to winning an election. In order to be effective, a campaign yard sign must be easy to read. Do not use superfluous text or graphics. The only text necessary is the candidate’s name and the office that he or she is seeking. The candidate’s last name should be printed in capital letters and be at least twice as large as the rest of the text. Those blessed with short last names should take full advantage of the situation by printing their last names even larger. Do NOT include photographs, slogans, or graphics on the sign which only reduce readability. Do not use fancy fonts which are difficult to read. Remember that the purpose of a sign is to make the candidate’s name visible and readable from as far away as possible. Being too artsy-craftsy with your design will only deter from this purpose. The candidate’s name on the sign should be consistent with how it will appear on the ballot. For example, if the candidate’s name on the ballot will appear as “William Jones,” then the candidate’s signs should NOT say “Bill Jones.” Also, use the candidate’s first name or nickname by which most people know him on both the sign and the ballot. It’s better to be informal with the candidate’s name. Middle names or initials should be avoided. “Jim Johnson” is better than “James Chester Johnson III.” To make the sign more readable at night, print the sign with colored background and white letters if you can afford the extra expense. Print signs in bright colors like red, blue, and green.
An Efficient Way to Retrieve Yard Signs After the Election
Once the election is over, candidates and committee members should practice good citizenship by promptly gathering all the yards signs they placed on public and private property. Most municpalities require campaign signs to be removed within 7 days of the election.
One efficient method for local candidates to retrieve their yard signs with a minimum of effort is to establish a “Sign Exchange”. This means that when one candidate goes to pickup his sign at a particular location, he collects all the Republican signs at that location. This way, only one trip is made to the same location rather that 8 or 9 trips by each candidate separately. Then, the candidate takes all the signs he collects that do not belong to him to a designated central location, or “Sign Exchange,” where the signs are sorted by candidate. At the same time, the candidate picks up his own signs left there by other candidates who did the same thing at other locations. Candidates will have to make 2 or 3 visits to the “Sign Exchange” to obtain all their signs. The candidates can then store their signs for the General Election campaign in the fall.
The “Sign Exchange” system makes the onerous task of collecting yard signs after the election a little easier by saving you time, energy, and gasoline. Even the liberal, environmental extremists will love you for this!