Observations from newly-elected McHenry County Board member Mike Walkup:

Sign Wars

Politicians consider signs to be very important in elections, especially on the local level where there are limited other means to reach voters.

One of the most effective methods is supposed to be signs in the vicinity of polling places on election day as that targets the people who will actually be voting.

In the case of down ballot races, some voters may arrive at the polls not having considered who to vote for beyond the top of the ticket so signs can be particularly important with these voters.

Therefore, you will see midnight sign brigades out the night before the election putting up signs as close as possible to all of the polling places.

In some locations this can be difficult as the signs have to be placed more than 100 feet from the door of the polling room, which may be off the property and on the public right of way.

People who live across from polling locations grow weary of being constantly approached by candidates and their supporters requesting sign placement and often reject any sign placement on their properties or may want money in exchange for the privilege.

What is a candidate to do?

An interesting thing happened in the District 3 election.

During the middle of the day, a multitude of signs were swept from in front of several poll locations.

Two of these sweeps were conducted by municipal work crews, in Cary and Crystal Lake.

Others were performed by churches who hosted polling locations.

After a conversation with Mary McClellan, an Assistant State’s Attorney in Cook County who was also a District 3 candidate, I looked up the law in the Election Code. Here is what it says:

“The area on polling place property beyond the campaign free zone {100 feet from the entrance to the room in which the polling occurs}, whether publicly or privately owned, is public forum for the time that the polls are open on an election day…. A person shall have the right to congregate and engage in electioneering on any polling place property while the polls are open beyond the campaign free zone, including but not limited to, the placement of temporary signs.

“This subsection shall be construed liberally in favor or persons engaging in electioneering on all polling place property beyond the campaign free zone for the time that the polls are open on an election day.” (Italics supplied). 10 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5/17, Sec. 17-19 (b). (Illinois Election Code).

(As a caveat, I have not researched any case law that may have followed this enactment so it would have to be further researched before it can be conclusively relied upon).

What does this mean?

First of all, churches and private schools can designate their entire grounds as “campaign free zones” in accordance with the preceding paragraph not quoted here, forcing candidate signs to the public right of ways surrounding those properties.

However, to do so the signs marking the 100 foot distance must be placed at their property boundaries by the election judges.

They usually don’t do that.

In the case of the Evangelical Free Church in Crystal Lake, and the Church of the Holy Apostles in McHenry, this was not done, yet signs were removed that had been placed near the entrances on church property well outside of the 100 foot zone.

Second, polling places which are not either private schools nor churches cannot limit sign placement on their properties outside of the 100 foot mark, regardless of how large their properties are.

For example, Cary High School should not have been able to prohibit sign placement on the long approaches to the building, as they did, causing candidate signs to be removed by the Village of Cary from the right of way in mid day.

The same holds true for the VFW Hall in McHenry which did the same thing, although the City of McHenry did not remove the signs placed at the entrance on the right of way along Route 120.

The same holds true for the Salvation Army location in Crystal Lake.

All signs there were forced onto the right of way where they were removed by the City of Crystal Lake work crews.

Ditto for the Crystal Lake Park District, although no one attempted to put signs up on PD property as far as I am aware.  [There were signs at the Main Beach House polling place.]

This applies only to the actual properties of the polling locations and probably the adjacent right of ways.

It would not apply to right of ways across or down the street from the property of the polling place.

The Village of Cary was actually proper in removing signs from the right of way as they were placed across the street from the High School property.

However, signs could have been placed directly on the High School property itself, which for some reason was not attempted by any of the candidates.

This raises an interesting question about early voting.

All of the early voting locations are at government buildings which cannot prohibit sign placement on their properties beyond the 100 foot mark.

This exception applies only to the hours of operation of the polls, and only to “election day”.

Theoretically candidates could festoon the often large grounds of government buildings such as Crystal Lake City Hall, McHenry City Hall, the County Government Center, and the township office locations with their signs, so long as they put them up every morning and removed them every night when the polls at those locations closed.

Given that the law is to be “liberally construed” in favor of free expression, the term “election day” should probably extend to the entire early voting period, although the Election Code, which has not been amended since early voted was adopted, does not discuss that.

Awareness of this provision in the Election Code by candidates in future elections could transform the election day sign placement as currently practiced.

I would imagine that it could be beneficial for candidates and/or political parties to meet with the people in charge of the various poll locations in advance of election day to ensure they are aware of this provision so their signs are not trashed.

Once the election is underway, it is typically difficult to find someone with authority to order that the signs not be removed and to get that communicated to work crews or janitorial staff.

Perhaps ground rules could be worked out for early voting locations so candidates would not have to repeatedly install and remove signs in exchange for an agreement about placement, number and size of signs.