Get On the Stick…How to Give Your Political Sign Campaign More Punch
Political Sign Campaigns & Elections

In the modern age of technology and sophisticated political techniques, there are a lot of things to know about when planning your political campaign. But one thing you shouldn't forget is quite simple: the first and last message that voters will see will almost always be on a political campaign sign. So take your political sign campaign seriously.
EVEN IN THIS HIGH-TECH, computerized world of instantaneous global communications, the first, most basic and universal advertising medium in human history is still the most important one. Businesses, services, governments and political campaigns simply couldn't exist without signs.
Since political campaign signs are the most essential selling tools for building name recognition and your campaign image, it's important to follow a few basic rules about planning and placing them:

1. Map Your Political Campaign Sign Strategy. Obtain a large, detailed road map of the precinct, township, city, county, circuit or district in which you are running. You can usually buy these maps from your county government's printing office or planning and zoning department, or download them from your state or local government Web site. You'll need this to identify and mark key intersections and high-traffic areas for the best political sign locations.

Some intersections are obvious, but you don't have to guess about which other locations are exposed to the highest number of motorists. Maps and lists indicating the Average Daily Traffic Counts in your area are available from state and county Departments of Transportation offices.
It is also a good idea to compare the map with a computerized voter file that identifies those precincts with the highest concentrations of the voters you need to influence to win. You'll want to cover the arterials and intersections in these neighborhoods first. Mapping software like Geo Voter, a Windows-based program designed by Map Applications, Inc., features census information evenly laid over political subdivisions. These mapping information systems allow you to see, on a computer-generated map, where key voter blocs are located.

Use different color dots, pins or flags (something non-permanent and easily changeable) to identify "like to have," "need to have" and "already have" political sign locations. You should display this coded map in a prominent place in your campaign headquarters, garage, den or wherever else you hold your general campaign meetings. This map, and a companion precinct map, should be the main exhibits in your "war room."

2. Put Your Paperwork in Order. Create a file containing documents authorizing you to place political signs on an owner's property-written permission slips, letters and official forms. Keep the originals in your campaign office files and give copies to you political sign chairperson and each of your political sign crews.

3. Know and Follow the Rules. Official jurisdictions each have their own rules and regulations about what constitutes a "permit" to place a political sign on someone else's property. Be sure your sign committee members have copies of those rules and regulations from your local elections office before you begin erecting your political campaign signs.
Some subdivisions have rules against displaying campaign signs, so it's a good idea to check with neighborhoods that have a homeowners' association, or a controlling builder or developer. No matter what the rules are about displaying political signs in a yard, the homeowners probably have the right to place a political sign or poster inside their front window.

4. Do Your Homework. For your list of "like to have" locations, look up the legal descriptions of the properties and match them to owners' names in the county records. Then you, or members of your campaign committee who know these property owners, should contact them to ask for their permission to place one of your political campaign signs on their property. It doesn't hurt to ask, even if you think the owner supports your opponent. Certain big land owners will "hedge their bets" or not want to offend anyone, and allow opponents in the same race to place political signs on their property.
If you have a friend in the general real estate business, he or she probably has a direct computer link to the County Property Appraiser's and Tax Collector's offices, so they can match properties and their owners at the stroke of a few keys.
Some large and progressive counties have the tax rolls merged with a CAD system that will actually print out plats indicating the location, legal description, street address, ownership, zoning, size, configuration and even the footprint of the structures that are on the property. Some, or all, of this data can now be accessed directly over the Internet through county government Web sites.
Another handy computer-generated chart that most counties now use is a density map indicating, by various methods, the areas with the largest concentration of homes. This map, combined with a Department of Transportation "Average Daily Traffic Count" list or map and the precinct overlay we mentioned earlier, will tell you at a glance where to place your signs for maximum exposure and the most bang for your buck.
Ask your party leaders or your politician friends in other races for a list of the property owners who have offered them political sign locations. There's almost always room for another political sign, especially if the property is a big vacant parcel. Politicians who are retired or not running in the same election year can be a big help too. Check with them to see who contributed prominent political sign locations to their campaigns.

5. Use Big Little Political Yard Signs. Those small l4"x22", 18"x24" and 24"x24" political signs are a great way to display grassroots support. When voters display your political campaign signs in their yards, it shows neighbors that they believe in you enough to temporarily alter the landscape of their property. We recognize the power of that association, and we take it one step further.

6. Utilize the Concept of "Adopted" Political Campaign Signs. You can make these political signs pay for themselves, and even clear a fundraising "profit" for your campaign by "selling" customized political yard signs with supporters' names imprinted on them in computer-cut vinyl letters. Instead of a political sign that reads "Elect Steve Hunt," customize it to read "The Fleming Family Supports Steve Hunt."
An "Adopt-A-Sign" program creates a neighborhood identity for your campaign and dramatically demonstrates voter support. The association between your name and theirs is forged in print. It shows that you have lots of friends, and that you are a candidate of the people. It virtually assures you that the political yard sign will be used, displayed and protected as if it were the homeowner's personal property. After all, they "paid" for the privilege with a political campaign donation, so it is personal property.
Although they are more expensive to customize, you can do the same thing with 4'x8's. Even if you don't customize them, you can still "sell" standard locations to potential "adopters" for enough to cover the cost of a 4'x8'.

7. Go Into "Business" for Yourself. Political Yard signs aren't just for residential lawns anymore. Sometimes political sign committee chairpersons forget that, although 4'x8' political signs are usually prohibited on residential property, political yard signs are almost never prohibited on commercial property. That means every business is a prospect for a political yard sign, either out on the curb, or prominently displayed as a poster in their storefront. Note: Print cheaper, interior grade window and wall posters in the same size and format -- and do it at the same time as your political yard signs. You'll save money in the long run if you do.
Especially in small downtown areas, you can look like you "own" the place with a dozen or so political yard signs and window posters. The same is true of major residential thoroughfares, particularly those heavily traveled roads leading into the heart of a commercial district. Solicit residents along those "main drags" to put your political signs in their yards early in the campaign.

8. Create Political Sign Shrines. Political Yard signs can be used to increase the impact and effectiveness of 4'x8' political campaign signs. The concept works like this: At your key 4'x8' political sign locations, tease the viewers by placing a single political yard sign where you'll eventually install a 4'x8'. A few days later, add another, and then another so that the cumulative visual effect is that the political signs are multiplying.
Then, at the appropriate time (no more than five weeks, and no less than three weeks before the primary or general election date), replace the first political yard sign with the "Mothership" -- a, by then, seemingly huge 4'x8'.
We especially like what we call "Shrining a Corner." We pick a key, high-traffic intersection and start placing a "trail of crumbs" with political signs following the traffic flow around the corner.

Words of Caution

Here are a couple of tips that will prevent your political signs from giving a negative and erroneous impression about your campaign.

* Instruct your volunteers to avoid placing political signs in protected areas like environmentally sensitive wetlands, and never, ever nail one of your political campaign signs to a tree.

* You can also avoid fines, confiscation, a lot of heartache, lost impact and wasted money by not having your political signs placed in state, county and municipal road medians and rights-of-way. If the lawnmowers don't get them, the bureaucrats will. Generally, the way to eyeball the right-of-way is to look for mowing lines and obvious public structures like streetlights, sidewalks, drainage ditches and utility poles. If you keep your political signs slightly behind them, chances are they'll be OK.
Although "bootleg" political sign placement is rampant in some jurisdictions, we never advise our candidates to do it. The scofflaw image is just too risky. If your campaign volunteers are known sign ordinance violators, and your opponents can't find anything else to tag you with, they can brand you as a political sign crook. It may be a small issue to you, but it won't sit well with average, law-abiding citizens
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* Don't fix and forget your political signs. In Aesop's classic fable, The Fox and the Lion, he wrote that "Familiarity breeds contempt." Setting and forgetting political campaign signs is a big mistake that both first-time and longtime politicians make. Campaign political signs that just sit there day after day become so familiar to viewers that they rapidly lose their impact and actually become part of the scenery.
By applying "riders" and "add-ons," you can not only keep your political signs fresh for the length of your campaign, but you can actually build interest to a peak just when you need it - the morning of the election.
You see this device used all the time on real estate signs - "Sold," "Just Reduced," "Make Offer" or "For Sale By Owner." None of those just mentioned make particularly great copy for political signs, but here are a few that do work: "Vote Tuesday, Sept. 3rd," "It's Time For A Change," "Vote Today" and our all-time favorite, especially on the days following the first and second primaries, "THANK YOU Vote Again Oct. 6th."
Saying thank you to the voters immediately after a successful primary victory projects the humble, "good guy" image of a graceful winner. It is also a powerful reinforcement to your supporters; wins you converts among the supporters of your defeated opponents and kicks off your brand new second primary or general election campaign on a very positive note. It also reminds voters that they need to go to the polls again to protect their monetary and emotional investment in your candidacy.

Tell Them When to Vote

Another obvious rule, right? Again, you'd be shocked at how many politicians ignore the obvious.
In some counties, particularly those with a sizable part-time population, voter turnout in the primaries is as low as 12 percent. Don't take it for granted that your supporters will show up. Low turnouts make it easier for single-issue candidates and candidates with narrow but deep support to make a good showing.
If you're one of those folks, don't tell the general public when the election is. But if you're a serious candidate with broad appeal, you need to keep pounding away at the election date. If your name is on a long primary ballot, your ballot position should be promoted too. "Punch #171."
To inform the voters, and build interest in the fact that there's an election date coming, use riders and add-ons, as well as other elements-balloons, streamers, pin wheels, anything that attracts attention and says "Today's the day!"

The Final Assault

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One sure-fire way to let the voters know that it's election day and get one last shot at name recognition, is to place political yard signs as close to each and every precinct polling place in your city, county or district as the law will allow. To avoid embarrassment and potentially costly penalties, know what that distance is and use a tape measure. Organize your crews to put these political signs up after dark on the night before the election. It will add an element of surprise on election morning, and it will reduce the chance of having your political signs"gooned" or challenged by the opposition.

Other Uses for Political Campaign Yard Signs

Political Yard signs, particularly the rigid, corrugated plastic or poly-coated cardboard kind, can be easily adapted to a host of other useful campaign applications.
Tape them together back to back at the top, and spread them at the bottom - they become large table tent cards. Using the same construction, hang them over a clothesline to make a continuous "banner" for rallies, speeches and public appearances.
Use them for any outdoor application, including inexpensive and easy-to-make "car toppers" (back-to-back political signs on a framework of 2"x2"s, sitting on one of those cheap suction cup-type roof racks). They're so lightweight and durable, you can tape them up as campaign posters and reuse them again and again.

Very Important

Your corrugated plastic signs are recyclable EPA Schedule #5. Make sure you let everyone know you
are running an environmental friendly campaign...

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