Political Yard Sign Rules

Yard signs win local races, and nothing kills a sign budget faster than a crew pulling them off a highway shoulder on the Saturday before the election. Here is what actually gets signs removed, and what the law protects.

The right-of-way is where signs get taken

Courts have been clear that this restriction is allowed. In Members of City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent (1984) the Supreme Court upheld a ban on posting signs on public property, applied to a city council candidate’s own campaign signs. Even in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, the case that struck down a sign code, the Court said a town may go a long way toward forbidding signs on public property as long as it does so evenhandedly.

Removal is often immediate and without warning. Texas’s transportation department states plainly that political signs in the right-of-way are illegal and that no notification before removal is required. Nevada holds removed signs for 30 days and then disposes of them.

How to find the edge without a survey. Washington’s transportation department gives the most useful test we have found: utility poles usually sit inside the right-of-way near its edge, and fence lines often mark the boundary. A sign between the pole and the road, or on the road side of the fence, is probably on public land. Note also that ditches and drainage areas beside the road are typically part of the right-of-way, not the gap before it — Illinois defines its right-of-way to include them.

One trap worth knowing: a state highway running through the middle of town is still a state highway. Your village ordinance is not the only rule that applies to it.

Sources: Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789 · wsdot.wa.gov · txdot.gov

Your own yard is protected

A town cannot simply ban political signs from private residential property. That was settled unanimously in City of Ladue v. Gilleo (1994), where the Court described a sign in your own yard as an unusually cheap and convenient form of communication with no real substitute.

Illinois goes further than most states. State law provides that, other than reasonable restrictions as to size, no municipality may prohibit the display of outdoor political campaign signs on residential property — and it does not limit that to election season.

You still need the property owner’s permission for any yard that is not yours. Ask the owner, every time, in person.

Sources: City of Ladue v. Gilleo, 512 U.S. 43 · 65 ILCS 5/11-13-1(12)

What a town can and cannot regulate

In Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) the Supreme Court struck down a sign code that gave political signs, ideological signs and event signs three different sets of rules. Treating a sign differently because of what it says is content based, and that is very hard for a town to justify.

Plenty of regulation survives, though, because it has nothing to do with the message. Rules on size, on where signs may be placed, on lighting and moving parts, on private versus public property, and on the number of signs per mile of road are all fair game. So are rules genuinely tailored to traffic safety, such as keeping the corner sight triangle clear at an intersection or driveway.

The Court also narrowed Reed in 2022 in City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising, holding that a rule is not content based merely because you have to read the sign to apply it. So do not assume every sign rule is unenforceable.

Sources: Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 576 U.S. 155 · City of Austin v. Reagan National, 596 U.S. 61 · Whitton v. Gladstone, 54 F.3d 1400

Election day: the polling place buffer

Every state keeps campaign material a set distance from the polls on election day, and those buffers are constitutional — the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s 100-foot zone in Burson v. Freeman (1992). In Illinois the electioneering line is 100 feet from each polling place entrance, and the statute names placing temporary signs as electioneering. The distance differs from state to state, so check yours before you set anything out that morning.

Sources: Burson v. Freeman, 504 U.S. 191 · 10 ILCS 5/17-29

If your sign names a federal candidate

Communications supporting or opposing a candidate for federal office must carry a disclaimer — the “Paid for by…” line. Federal rules require it in a printed box set apart from the rest of the sign, with reasonable color contrast, and treat 12-point type as sufficient on a sign no larger than 24 by 36 inches. Yard signs do not qualify for the small-items exception that lets buttons, pens and bumper stickers leave it off. State and local races follow their own rules, so ask your election authority.

Ordering for a Texas race? Texas requires a specific notice printed on political advertising signs warning that placing the sign in a highway right-of-way violates state law. Tell us and we will set it.

Sources: 11 C.F.R. 110.11 · Tex. Elec. Code 259.001

Before you put the first sign out

• Get the property owner’s permission for every yard that is not your own.
• Keep signs out of the right-of-way — behind the fence line, back from the utility poles, out of the ditch.
• Never staple or zip-tie a sign to a utility pole, street sign post or traffic signal.
• Check your city or village ordinance and your county. On a state route, the state adds a third set of rules.
• Keep the corner sight triangle clear so drivers can see.
• Stay outside the polling place buffer on election day.
• If you are in an HOA, read your covenants first.
• Take them down promptly when it is over.

Martin Graphics is a sign shop, not a regulatory agency or a law firm. We publish this as a courtesy and keep it as accurate as we can, but sign rules differ from town to town, change often, and the local ordinance is usually the one enforced. Nothing here is legal advice. You are solely responsible for confirming and meeting the rules that apply where your signs go.