Debra Wilde’s hackles go up each time she drives by St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Parish in Denver, just off a busy stretch of South University Boulevard.
“I’ve called personally to ask them to please remove their campaign signs, but every time I drive by they’re still there,” said Wilde, 62, a Denver educator. “In this day and age, the line is so blurred anymore between churches and politics, and it’s frightening to me in this country that this is happening.”
The signs — which oppose Proposition 106, a measure to allow patients in Colorado to end their lives with the assistance of a doctor — are perfectly legal, owing to a church’s right to endorse issues but not specific political candidates.
But yard signs have been harder to find in the 2016 election than in years past, making St. Vincent’s signs stand out more.
Political signs are falling out of favor by both campaigns and citizens due to a mix of factors, including their cost and unproven ability to drive votes. Social media have also swiftly replaced front yards, car bumpers and lapel pins as the place to express political identity or support for a cause or issue, experts say.
“In Colorado, my first explanation is that it’s a ground-game issue,” said Anand Sokhey, an associate professor of political science at The University of Colorado at Boulder who has studied and written about campaign yard signs. “Trump has a very, very poor ground presence in Colorado, so you’re going to see more Clinton signs in general. But Clinton also pulled some of her resources out of the state late in the summer, so you’re not seeing a lot of those, either.”
The negatively charged atmosphere of the presidential election, and some state ballot issues, may also be making voters more reluctant to announce their affiliation, Sokhey said, given how divisive certain issues can be.
“Putting a Trump sign in your yard… does that mean you’re OK with what he said about women?” Sokhey said. “That’s what’s going through some peoples’ heads when they see those.”
“The Trump campaign in Colorado believes that signs are an essential part of showing your support for Donald Trump,” Patrick Davis, senior advisor for Trump’s Colorado office, said via e-mail. “We have made a concerted effort to cover the state with Trump signs.”
However, Davis declined to address the “ground game” issue, and Denver Post calls and e-mails to the Colorado Republican Party on the topic were not returned.
The issue is not confined to presidential politics. A Baker neighborhood homeowner noticed an unauthorized sign in her yard in support of Initiative 300, which would allow limited social marijuana use in certain areas. She threw it in the garbage, but on Monday another one appeared — along with a death threat.
“I’m WATCHING! If you touch this, I will shoot you in the face. You have been WARNED,” read a hand-written note on the sign, according to KMGH-Channel 7 in Denver.
The problematic nature of yard signs, from political campaigns to Black Lives Matter placards, isn’t always so dramatic. For some organizers, there are simply more effective uses of time and money.
“Putting up a sign in your yard is great, but I don’t think it should get in the way of people volunteering and talking to their neighbors,” said Chris Meagher, spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party. “It’s one aspect of getting the message out, but the real efforts take place on the ground.”
Meagher cited the Colorado Democratic Party’s estimated 40,000 hours of voter registration efforts and 60,000 hours of “voter contact” as a better use of campaign resources.
“We know that Colorado will be won through turnout, and turnout comes as a result of voter contact,” he said. “That’s where our focus is.”
Both Meagher and Hillary Clinton’s Colorado press secretary Meredith Thatcher said they have not been collecting data on how many yard signs they have deployed this season.
“What we do focus on tracking is the number of phone calls made, doors knocked (on), volunteer shifts recruited, voters registered, commit-to-vote cards collected and other concrete organizing steps that make a direct difference over Colorado’s three weeks of voting,” Thatcher said in an e-mail. “Those pieces are the real focus of our organizing efforts and resources.”
Or, as some political organizers say: “Yard signs don’t vote.”
But don’t count them out entirely. Lawn signs still have the potential to promote turnout and name recognition, as well as sway very close elections, according to multiple academic studies. Like-minded neighbors also tend to feel more comfortable displaying their political beliefs among one another, reinforcing political identity in certain geographic areas, the studies say.
“It’s easy to put a candidate’s logo behind your picture on Facebook because it’s a virtual space, which in some ways is even more accessible than a physical one,” said CU’s Sokhey. “But it can also be an echo chamber because you’re blocking people who disagree with you, whereas yard signs are out there for everyone to see.”
