Do political yard-signs and bumper stickers actually help?

[Oopsie Daisy]

Or, is it just a risky way to aggravate, needle and "trigger" the supporters for the other candidate/s (while putting one's home and or auto's paint and tires at risk of being vandalized?)

[Funtatlaguy]

1. They help more in down ballot races.

School board, city council, etc.
races with little or no name recognition.

[DeepWinter]

8. Completely agree

Great for local elections and getting name recognition.

National elections I consider them worthless. No sign or catch phrase has ever swayed my vote.

[rzemanfl]

2. Sure, ask any paint and body shop if they help them.

[ret5hd]

3. Advertising doesn't work...

Companies realize this also. Especially Pharma companies.

They just like spending money.

[Keepthesoulalive]

4. I put up yard signs

And I don’t give a damn if they are triggered. Every one must make that decision based on their comfort level. But I am a proud democrat and I won’t cower before these assholes.

[getagrip_already]

5. My wife has hillary, biden, and harris stickers on her car...

And has never had her car vandelized or faced road rage over them.

And we've drive all over the east; down to nc and to western pa. The car is a 2007 so its been around.

But, im sure there are cases where people do get harrased or attacked/vandelized.

Ymmv.

[Jerry2144]

6. I wouldn't put any on my car

Most cops are Christofascist Trumpanzees around here. They seem to preferentially pull over cars with Democratic bumper stickers

[cutroot]

7. Yes they help me. when I see the magat sign I move away

[Greybnk48]

9. If I'm not sure which local candidates are the most liberal,

I know which houses to check to grab the names (like school board, etc). My kids do the same.

[Wounded Bear]

10. Well, buying them funnels money to the candidates...

[Bobstandard]

11. It's depressing how intimidated we are

I get people being concerned about their yard, house, or car being vandalized it the put up yard signs or bumper stickers. But it’s depressing that we’ve become so intimidated by the miscreants that we have to think twice.

I applaud the folks courageous enough to show where they stand.

And I believe they work. Advertising 101: keep pounding the message.

[Torchlight]

12. I s'pose it comes down to 'help what?'

I'm guessing there are about a million different reason we advertise our passions, hobbies, and interests.

Does it help or assist the national votes? I dunno, I'd want to see the data before I make any guesses.

[PeaceWave]

13. In Purple States, all I think it does is create agitation between neighbors.

[appmanga]

24. I had a neighbor in Georgia...

...who'd put out his GOP sign, so my ex-wife and I would put out our Democratic sign. There's was never any friction and probably because when Trump came around, there was no sign put out for him. There really was a time when you could disagree about politics without being seen as the enemy.

[Old Curler]

14. Small Businesses

I love when small businesses put MAGA signs up. I avoid them all year long. And then some.

[rurallib]

15. A friend who won a congressional seat kept telling me

that signs don't vote! Signs don't vote!

That always nags at me whenever I see signs in a yard or on a car.

Yet there is some level of visible support for a candidate that says "this person has support" and having signs in yards of regular people shouts that out.

So they are needed to show some level of support, but must be followed up with calls and door-knocking which in turn undergirds advertising.

[CrispyQ]

16. I live in a mostly blue area on a busy corner & the first time I ever put a yard sign out was 2004 for John Kerry.

I felt Bush got a pass cuz of 9-1-1 & that a lot of dems were supportive of his decision to invade Iraq, I personally thought we were on a bad path & that's about the time I discovered DU & learned so much more, like the pallets of cash & cheap vests for the troops. It wasn't until Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9-1-1 came out that I felt people (dems) woke up to the whole Iraq mess & corruption. I felt it was critical that Kerry win so I stuck a sign in my yard. I walked my precinct & was an election judge too. 2004 wasn't as bad as 2016 but I went to bed in tears both nights.

I didn't put signs out for Obama or HRC but I did again in 2020 for Biden & again this year for Harris. I have a few & this is one of my favorites.

[XorXor]

17. I don't think I've ever been consciously swayed by a sign or bumper sticker.

Although, I suppose there is unconscious stuff behind the scenes that might be at play. "Wow, this person seems really popular and well liked" if there are large quantities of campaign propaganda for a candidate. Heh. It's actually kinda creepy when I think of it like that.

This is just my stupid layperson thoughts on it. I have no real knowledge or understanding of anything.

[hawkeye21]

18. Good question, and my take is this:

They do not help except, perhaps, in key counties in swing states. Everywhere else, signs and stickers are preaching to the choir at best, inciting MAGA violence at worst.

Now if we had an actual election where every vote did, in fact, count, it could be a different story. But Iowa is voting for Trump . . . again . . . and no number of yard signs or bumper stickers or phone calls or anything at all is gonna change that.

The Electoral College makes most Americans' votes moot. Only those folks in those key counties in those swing states matter. It's as simple, and as depressing, as that.

I'm looking forward to voting for Harris/Walz and against Trump, but only because it will make me feel better. It's not gonna matter.

The Electoral College is the most undemocratic voting system in the world--period. No other contest in the United States, from class president to US senator, has anything like it, and neither does any other country in the world. So until the EC is abolished, tyrants like Trump have a tunnel to the Oval Office. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by almost THREE MILLION VOTES--one of which was mine--but it didn't matter. So if you want to go with yard signs or bumper stickers, maybe go with ones that demand the end of the dangerous and foolish Electoral College.

[Oopsie Daisy]

19. I appreciate your thoughtful post and analysis.

Let's win this!!

[moonscape]

23. It's frustrating that most of our votes don't

count. I’m in CA and my vote is a mere 25%+ because I don’t live in Wyoming. But since we’re stuck with it for the foreseeable future …

All we can do is contribute to national enthusiasm and outreach as much as possible. That part makes a unified difference.

[MineralMan]

20. They help candidates for more minor offices.

But, only if there are major candidate signs out. So, if you see a Harris/Walz sign on a lawn, and next to it is a campaign sign for a candidate for city council or county assessor, you're likely to be motivated to vote for that person if you vote for Harris/Walz. In that sense, they're useful.

Most people don't bother much to check out candidates for minor offices. They should, of course, but they don't. So, those associations from clusters of signs often make a difference.

I remember one year, when a Hmong candidate was running for a city-wide office in St. Paul. He campaigned door-to-door and had friends and family also out campaigning. But there was no budget for signs. I asked for one, and there weren't any. So, I ordered one from some online printer and put it on my lawn with my other signs. I can't tell you how many Hmong neighbors mentioned my sign and asked where to get one.

Shortly thereafter, the candidate ordered a bunch of yard signs and they started to appear around town. The candidate won. People were surprised. I was not. He was very good, had a great grassroots campaign going, and has done a very good job in the offices he has held.

So, don't discount yard signs. They can make a difference in some cases.

[blm]

21. I would put judges' signs next to my Obama signs

when I lived in Charlotte, because most people don’t recognize the names of the judges, and too often wouldn’t know which of the judges was Democrat or Republican. This was a good way to help.

[Oopsie Daisy]

22. Excellent! I'd not considered that. Great thinking!

[ibegurpard]

25. No but a lack of them can hurt

They show you have the money, resources, and support to be taken seriously.

[Ocelot II]

26. Their presence indicates enthusiasm. They might not change minds,

but I think they tend to encourage others. They are also an indication of support for minor candidates who sometimes run without party affiliation or endorsement - like judges, for example. If I see Harris signs along with signs supporting particular local candidates I'll have a sense of where those candidates' support is coming from. And lawn signs definitely indicate a vibe. I've been posting photos of the more clever lawn signs in my neighborhood, as I did in 2020, and what I'm seeing now are signs that are appearing much earlier, and quite a lot of home-made ones. In this neighborhood in the People's Republic of Minneapolis nobody is going to change their vote to Harris from Trump on account of all the Harris signs, because there are very few Trump voters here in the first place. The signs are preaching to the choir - but it seems like this time the choir is already preparing to sing. So I think lawn signs are valuable at least as an expression of enthusiasm and intent.

[Scruffy1]

27. They are rare in El Paso except for local elections.

I think I saw 2 Trump signs is 2020. Both on hovels. The real elections here are the primaries because El Paso may be the most Democratic city in the USA. The culture here is more about being polite and respectful but as the saying (translated) from Mexico goes:" Pray and swing a big hammer." I made a cat ladies for Harris sign for my yard just for even though I am a man. Cats are very loved in our city.

[gopiscrap]

28. look up Collier-vs-Tacoma 1993 Washington Supreme Court

many years ago before the internet (yes I am old) I ran for US Congress from the left in a primary election. At that time, the yard sign was about the cheapest way to get your name out. I still think they ight help (for example) if some one is on the fence about who to vote for and they see signs supporting x candidate in a neighbors yard, they might be compelled tom give a second look to x candidate

It also gives the person/people who have the sign ownership in the campaign

[Voltaire2]

29. They do.

And they do particularly when you live in a 'battleground' state. We are social animals and we ingest all sorts of signals to determine our 'herd' behavior. Political signs are signals for voting behavior and when all the signs are for one party, that can steer a lot of 'unconscious' voting behavior.

Also fuck their feelings. Sign stealing is pretty common and pretty low, but just an annoyance. I've never heard of car and house vandalism over signs, I suppose it could happen.

[Oopsie Daisy]

31. Yes... plus being targeted for road rage, brake-checking, aggressive following, etc.

[madamesilverspurs]

30. Define "help".

In my neighborhood, Dems are the minority party, behind independents and GOPers respectively. As it happens, my apartment complex doesn't allow yard signs or window signs. But they have no say over how I choose to decorate my vehicle.

So, when I got my minivan with its many windows, I viewed it as a rolling yard with lots of space for stickers and signs. I wasn't really a surprise when, just days after my first sticker went up, the van was keyed along both sides. If that action was intended to silence my efforts, it didn't work; if anything, it let me know that I was on the right track.

I can't tell you how many parking lot conversations have happened as a direct result of those stickers and signs, but it has been about half-and-half pro or con. In a couple of instances there was more than a hint of belligerence, I've been called some interesting names, been accused of everything up to instigating a second crucifixion. That said, there have been the uplifting moments that allay any lurking doubts. There was the woman who was hurrying into the store and saw my car, stopped, then came over and said that she and her husband were still unpacking from moving here; they were wondering if there were any Democrats in town and she was delighted to meet one. We chatted for a bit, I welcomed her to town, and gave her directions to our local Dems office. That felt good.

The memory that always makes me smile happened in that same Safeway parking lot. A woman walked by looking at her shopping list. She glanced up, stopped, did a double-take, then broke into a huge smile, gave two thumbs-up, then turned and literally danced the rest of the way to the store entrance, where she stopped and waved before going inside.

For me, at the very least, there's something to be said for letting others know they are not alone.

.

[Oopsie Daisy]

32. Very insightful. Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful reply.

[Kali]

33. led to me sending super repuke neighbor some actual facts

on economics under Democratic leadership. I don't know that it led to any change in voting but gave him something to think about that wasn't on his normal news sources. I am the hippie neighbor but still OK if you know what I mean. I figure if I am a good neighbor with "kooky" ideas rather than a hostile asshole, they MIGHT be willing to think about things eventually. Or maybe just to show no shame in my positions and allow on the fence people know they aren't alone.

[Oopsie Daisy]

34. I'd like to have you as my shameless kooky hippie neighbor.

[Bigerhalf]

35. Shouldn't matter but Nasty

ass fellow Americans out there who are Murders, Nazis, those who think OK to rape, Republicans, some supreme court judges, red necks, deplorables, despicables, and just plane ole non thinking dumbass run of the mill Jerks!

[LeftInTX]

36. If you don't feel comfortable, don't do it.

I always put up signs. I don't do bumper stickers.

I worry about road rage. Have had a few spats with neighbors over the signs.

If you feel comfortable, go for it. However, it's best to do some planning and decide which signs you want to put up and how you want to display them. I usually have about five candidate signs.

[lees1975]

37. It depends.

We drove down the US 12 garage sale across four counties in SW Michigan last week, and made a point to stop at all of those displaying Biden signs, avoiding the Trump signs. In 2016 and 2020, the route had literally several hundred Trump signs. This year, we counted three through four counties. Some guy who was running for Drain commissioner of Berrien county won the prize for the most.

[TomSlick]

38. It doesn't matter. I'm putting up my "Veterans for Harris" whether it helps or not.

Decades ago, I took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There was nothing in the oath about an expiration date.

I will not live in fear. I will put my sign in the yard and my finger in the air to any who don't like it.

[Persondem]

39. I'd like to think that signs like this could have an effect

link