The Truth About Campaign Signs
The run-up to a presidential election typically produces a flurry of news and headlines about campaign yard sign drama, and this election cycle has been no different. There's been all manner of stories about candidate yard signs being stolen, about neighborhoods maintaining civility despite dueling yard signs, and even about husbands and wives drawing battle lines on political yard signs. In October a man in Dalton, Massachusetts, burned down 19 hay bales with "Vote USA Biden-Harris 2020" painted on them, and a city worker in Commerce Township, Michigan, needed treatment for gashed fingers when he was ordered to remove an illegally placed "Trump 2020 Promises Made Promises Kept" sign and discovered it had been rigged with razor blades.
On Saturday, sign controversies became deadly: Three boys aged 15, 16, and 17 were shot in Topeka, Kansas — one with injuries considered potentially life-threatening — by a man who told police he suspected they’d been stealing his Trump yard signs.
Still, a survey from YouGov suggests most headlines about political signs are overblown.
