Political signs are a lesser evil

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Political campaign signs are the detritus of democracy.

Or so it seems, particularly in the weeks and months just before and then after an election when they litter yards and roadsides all over Naperville.

A political sign is free speech at its simplest.

Sometimes it consists of just a name, without even an indication of what office the political hopeful is seeking. This is especially practical for someone who makes a career out of seeking office — any office — because he or she can then use the same signs election after election without going to the expense of having to order new ones each time.

During an election campaign a visit to the Municipal Center can be instructive because it is sometimes possible to see a city pickup truck filled with signs for various candidates.

These are the ones that were placed where they shouldn’t be — such as on city property or on a parkway — and have been confiscated by a city worker.

Then there are the signs that don’t quite get removed after the election is over. There are always a few stragglers that can be found often for months in the wake of the vote — particularly on major thoroughfares such as Ogden Avenue.

Fortunately for the appearance of our city, most candidates and their campaign workers seem to be getting the point these days and there seems to us to be fewer signs left up for a long time after the election than there have been in the past. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking on our part.

And there will be at least some fewer signs to begin with this fall.

That is because the Democratic candidates for the board of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District say they are not going to put any out, arguing that such signs can’t be recycled and won’t decompose and thus are bad for the environment. Instead, they say they are inviting potential voters to visit their websites or be available to chat for a bit when a candidate comes knocking on the door.

The Democrats are calling on their Republican opponents in the Forest Preserve District race to do the same — skip the signage.

As issues go, this is no big deal.

We certainly wouldn’t call on candidates to stop putting up political signs, though we would encourage them to place them only where it is legal and to remove the promptly after the election.

After all, with as little attention as Americans pay to who they elect these days, politicians need to take every opportunity they can to make sure the populace has at least some idea of what the candidates’ names are.