Signs of the Season: Do campaign signs really change votes?
COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) – Campaign signs are everywhere right now. Some are getting stolen, and one first-time candidate in La Quinta says she paid seven hundred dollars just to put hers up.
It’s not neccessarily on top of anybody’s mind. But it’s in your face. Every corner. Every fence. The yard next door.
“I think they work in a general way,” Kevin Fleming, a volunteer at Democratic Headquarters of the Desert, explained. “When you drive around and see the name, you become familiar.”
Fleming sells them at democratic headquarters in Cathedral City. $12 for a yard sign, $5 for a window.
“They help, David Middleton, another volunteer at Democratic Headquarters of the Desert, said. “Reminding them who’s running and sort of helps build up the enthusiasm.”
But do the signs actually work? One study on this says signs don’t get more people to vote. They nudge the ones who do. About one-point-seven points.
“One percent sometimes settles these things,” Middleton said. “So yeah it does make a difference.”
Carene Hensley is running in her first race for La Quinta city council. Her first three signs are free if she wants more. She would have to get a permit and place city stickers on every sign.
She says it cost her $700. The city listed it at $624; $200 dollars of it is a deposit she gets back if her signs are taken down on time.
“I had to fundraise pretty much for a whole month or even more to try and get enough to do that,” Hensley explained.
Then some of her signs disappeared.
“I noticed that there was another person’s sign up there, and mine was gone,” Hensley said.
She’s not blaming anyone. But Riverside County deputies have taken three sign theft reports and one vandalism report this month. Both are crimes.
If your sign goes missing, report it. In La Quinta, check for the city sticker before you blame the neighbors. Code enforcement pulls the ones without it.
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