Political Yard Signs
by Kitty Felde
The thing I hated even more than those talky meetings was seeing yard signs all over the neighborhood with somebody else's name on them. How dare they run against my Papa for congress?
My mom warned me, "Don't touch them, Fina. That would be vandalism. They'll put you in jail and wouldn't that be a fine thing for Papa's campaign?"
I didn't touch them. But I did spit on them when nobody was looking. - Welcome to Washington Fina Mendoza
Yard Signs
Yard signs have been a part of American political campaigns since John Quincy Adams ran for president. Adams tried to convince his neighbors to put his posters in their yards. It may not have helped: Adams didn't get a majority of electoral votes. It was the House of Representatives, along with state delegations that got one vote apiece, who elected him president. No yard signs in sight.
Older Than That
You could say yard signs date back to Roman times. The walls of Pompeii are covered with political slogans and endorsements:
I beg you vote for C. Julius Polybius for aedile. He makes good bread.
Primus and his household support Cn. Helvius Sabinus for aedile.
The fruit sellers incorporated together with Helvius Vestalis recommend M. Holconius Priscus for duumvir with judicial authority.
(photo courtesy of Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Flickr)
But Do They Work?
Back in 2015, a political science professor at Columbia University conducted a study of yard signs and found that they make a tiny difference in voting results - perhaps 1-2 percent.
What yard signs do provide is name recognition.
A Vanderbilt professor in 2011 planted yard signs with the name of an imaginary candidate near a school. A few days later, the PTA mailed out a survey with the names of five actual candidates plus the name of the fictional one, asking voters to pick their favorites. Nearly one in four respondents named the fake candidate among their top three.
(photo by Kitty Felde)Fina's moral dilemma about yard signs was based in fact, says writer Kitty Felde.
"My husband ran for Congress and I hated seeing yard signs with someone else’s name on them. It made me mad. How could those people not want to vote for my wonderful husband?”
She adds that she did NOT spit on the signs.