If falling leaves don’t send enough of a seasonal signal, travelers can chart the approach of Election Day by counting the political signs along the roadways.
While farmers harvest corn and homeowners cover the rosebushes, political candidates and their volunteers have planted a crop of colorful rectangles designed to keep their names in the public eye.
The good news is candidates and volunteers are making vigorous use of their right to free speech.
The bad news for village officials is the visual clutter that large concentrations of signs represent and the expense of picking up signs that don’t come down after election results come in.
In New Lenox, where a mini-forest of campaign signs stands next to the sign that welcomes visitors to the village at U.S. Highway 30 and Marley Road, the question has spurred debate among village trustees.
A village ordinance that prohibits posting political signs until 15 days before the election and mandates their removal a day after the election could be challenged on constitutional grounds, according to Trustee Gary Mueller, an attorney who is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision has declared time restrictions on political signage placed on private property were a violation of the 1st Amendment right to free speech, said Mueller, who has recommended revising the ordinance “in a non-political atmosphere” after Tuesday’s election.
The village can enforce limits on signs posted on public property.
Mayor John Nowakowski wants an ordinance that requires a cash deposit that would be returned if political organizations took down their signs on deadline, or kept if village employees had to be assigned to remove the signs.
The cost of post-election pickup was the driving force behind a political sign ordinance approved in Mokena in July.
The Mokena statute requires candidates and political groups to pay a $250 deposit, which will be reimbursed if their signs are picked up within 48 hours after the election.