Intersection

[Politics] Signs of the (electoral) times

Can’t we do something about all these political placards?

Damon Hodge

Even if we mimicked the growing number of Canadians who recycle old political campaign signs into new partisan placards, it’d probably only prompt local office-seekers to wallpaper the Valley even more than they already do come election time. They’d probably use them as a platform tenet: “Vote for me. My campaign signs are environmentally friendly!”

On second thought, what if municipalities simply enforced current laws on the books? Two years ago, the Las Vegas Sun discovered that 17 politicians still hadn’t removed their signs weeks and months after the elections, in violation of municipal statutes.

Since we have some form of elections every year, we’re probably stuck with the ubiquitous campaign signs. And we’ll likely see more places, like the vacant lot near Nellis and Stewart, overrun with posters from a half-dozen judicial candidates.

“We get tons of calls from citizens about signs,” Clark County code enforcement chief Joe Boteilho tells me. “But it’s incumbent upon the office-holder to remove the sign. Failure to remove campaign signs is a misdemeanor crime. A judge could sentence the person to up to six months in jail and a $1,000 [fine].”

To his knowledge, Boteilho says, no one has ever been fined or sent to jail for leaving campaign signs up. Instead, they get a letter warning them to remove them or, or … what happens next, Joe?

“There are times when those signs are missed or have been moved,” he says. “The candidates have been good when we’ve asked them to move something. The ones we remove outright are usually illegally placed or hazardous, either too close to the roadway where people can’t see oncoming traffic. We give people leeway.”

Yeah, that’ll teach ’em. With a slew of municipal and legislative seats and judicial posts up for grabs and this being a presidential election year, expect to see (more) signs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If the municipalities would adopt these modest proposals, we could cut down on campaign-sign clutter.

Cap the number of signs: If your municipal code reads as such, “Number of signs: no limit” (ahem, Clark County), then politicians will try to win by sheer force of ubiquity. Cap it at 50. Make them be judicious about placement.

Dock scofflaws: Each sign a candidate fails to remove results in the loss of one placard. Sure, it means more work for code-enforcers, but they’re not citing politicians anyway.

Create uniform guidelines: In Mesquite, signs can only go up 60 days before a primary election, whereas the county allows signs to go up on January 1 of an election year. The county, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Mesquite allow 15 days to remove signs. Henderson and Boulder City give five days. Go with the shorter durations.

Enforce, you know, the law: What’s the sense of having laws on the books and code-enforcers on the payroll if neither are used?

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