Driving around last Saturday, I passed through an an intersection where a big Romney/Ryan sign was planted in the grass. Someone had spray painted "OBAMA" across the front of it. Passing through that spot about the same time the next day, I noticed the defaced sign had been replaced with a new one. Given the weather yesterday, I would imagine all those flimsy signs have blown into the Potomac and are floating downstream into Chesapeake Bay by now.

In the city in Tennessee that we lived in when I was a teenager, there was a city councilman named Charles Gass. You can imagine what happened to some of his campaign signs.

immmature? sure, but also clever.

I'm impressed that the vandal bothered to find tape that so closely matched the color on the original sign.

You don't often see that kind of attention to detail in the casual defacement of lawn signs.

It's not political, but someone changed a street sign in my neighborhood from "Deer Pass" to "Deer Ass." It's been fixed, but I still the giggles thinking about it.

Phat Bui = "Fat Boy" is funny enough as it is.

I am against defacing or removing any political message. -- Amy Alkon Author Profile Page at October 30, 2012 7:09 AM

I generally won't deface or dispose of any sign on my property. But I live on a corner and the edge of my property lines are under the center of the road. The road is literally the township's easement.

I'm also a registered independent and simply don't want any on my property regardless of party.

I have called or emailed any number of politicians and said get your signs off my property, or they are mine to dispose of as I see fit. One lady tried to argue over her right to have the sign there. Dumb move -- she instantly lost my vote; and then she called the Auditor's office and found out I was right. The sign was gone the next day.

The other joker lost eight signs running for commissioner because there was no contact information on his registration to run that I could find. I guess he finally just got tired of me taking his signs.

Remembering one from my college days. The campus left had written "VOTE CHOICE" on various sidewalks. The campus right added the word "SCHOOL."

Amy, where I live, no one has a right to place signs of any kind of public property, except for real estate agents who pay for the privilege. However, it is a law that is widely ignored, and the city usually lets small stuff go. On the other hand, in the last election cycle one candidate put up a large banner on a fence adjacent to the interstate, and the city made him take it down.

An easement isn't public property. It's property that still belongs to the property owner; it's just that the city/county/state has permission to enter it for certain purposes. The easement does not in any way restrict the property owner from putting up signs in that part of the property.

People don't have a right, Jim P., to put up political messages on your property. I'm unclear on the laws on easements, however. -- Amy Alkon at October 30, 2012 11:48 PM

The thumbnail sketch: the typical easement in a suburb or city is the distance between the curb (which is the typical edge of your property) to the inner side of the sidewalk nearest to your residence. Typically the city, suburb, state, public utility, politician, etc. can put stuff in the easement without regard to complaint by the property owner.

In the easement you are responsible for "upkeep" such as shoveled sidewalks, mowing, but they can put in fire hydrants, underground public utilities, etc.

I have a stop sign on my corner that is beyond the easement, and on my private property, that I have never complained about. If the local government were to side with a politician, then I would tell the local government that they also have to remove the stop sign from my property.

Most politicians, when called by the easement owner, are smart enough to move their signs so as not to piss off the owner. But technically the politician has a right to put his sign up in your easement because it is quasi-public property. Especially if the sidewalk starts two feet in from the curb and the inner side of the sidewalk is two feet in.

I know it is nitpicky in a way, but establishing your rights with a politician gives them an idea of what the state and federal Constitutions mean.

Know your rights.

I refuse to maintain easements, if the government can do what they want on it it aint my property