Are visual clutter activists stealing political signs in Cornelius?
Sept. 29. By Dave Yochum. Commission and mayoral candidates in Cornelius are saying their signs are disappearing from key locations around town, including a particularly vulnerable stretch along Catawba Avenue between Jetton and Torrence Chapel.
Former Commissioner Michael Miltich said he doesn’t think they’re being taken by any particular candidate since all of them are gone.
Michael Miltich
“I’m guessing it’s someone who just doesn’t like campaign signs, not that I blame them,” the candidate said. Signs cost anywhere from a few dollars each to as much as $14, depending on the size, whether they are printed front and back and the number of colors in addition to black.
Police say the signs are personal property, and against the law to move. (Signs that have been found are being taken to the west side of Town Hall.)
Mayor Washam has turned to placing his signs on non-right-of-way locations such as businesses and residences.
Woody Washam
And Colin Furcht, a commissioner seeking his second term on the Town Board, said he is specifically not putting his signs out on public rights of way—but is putting them out only on the lawns of supporters, as well as Town Hall during Early Voting.
It’s anybody’s guess, but with a total of 12 candidates for mayor and Town Board, there could be 600 signs here, there and everywhere around town.
“I do not feel that signs should be the deciding factor in making a decision to vote for anyone,” Furcht said.
Colin Furcht
—Early Voting begins Oct. 19
—Signs must come down 10 days after Election Day.
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My wife Ann spent 2 hours this morning and found 27 campaign signs alongside W Catawba behind bushes, in the woods, and in dumpsters (but none were mine!). She will be taking them to Town Hall this afternoon for the owners to pick-up.
Here is an idea: put your sign in the yard of somebody who supports you. Your sign doesn’t belong in a public right of way or on public lands any more than a sign for someone cleaning gutters belongs there. They call them a “yard sign” for a reason. Anybody can stick a sign in a right of way. A sign in someone’s yard is a statement that someone personally supports the candidate. Otherwise, pay for a billboard.
I walked both sides of Catawba Ave today (Jack’s to Dollar Store). Collected 27 campaign signs that were in a dumpster, placed between bushes and a building or thrown into thorny shrubbery. I put them at Town Hall for owners to pick up. Didn’t find any of ours, but everybody else is entitled to get their rightful property back.
Cliff Homesley is spot on! Let the pols write the laws and it becomes rules for thee and not for me! Repeal the law they wrote.
the signs are unsightly. nobody likes them. the person that campaigns to stop signs on public property in the future will likely get a few extra votes