Comments on: Signage

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:41:34 +0000

yard signs don't vote but the people 'attached' to them surely do. The purpose is similar to that of any advertising…get the name in front of people b/c it might inspire them to try the product (or in the case of politics, do some research on the candidate and vote for them in the election).

as for why there aren't yard signs for consumer products…well, there may not be yard signs but there are t-shirts, stickers, pens, etc etc that people use all the time. Think about those Apple stickers you see on cars – not much different than a yard sign.

By: jambarama

jambarama — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:08:30 +0000

I think signs are useful for more local positions. When I was voting, I found a few elections (e.g. school board) where I didn't know the candidates, their positions, or anything about the race. I abstained from voting in these instances, but I can see people voting based on how many signs they've seen, or who has those signs. E.g. "my neighbor Bob like this guy, and Bob is a good guy, so why not." Or "a lot of people seem to like this Doris lady, I'll vote for her."

It is silly to vote this way, but I'll bet it is pretty common. Maybe not as common as "this guy is from my party, therefore I'll vote for him regardless" but with independents I'll bet signs matter.

By: Xianhang Zhang

Xianhang Zhang — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:00:17 +0000

from: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/breaking...

Listen.

Organizers – the people out there killing themselves to win this election – hate yard signs with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

Barack Obama’s organizers hate them. John McCain’s organizers hate them. It’s because yard signs don’t vote – but they do generate a ridiculous amount of complaining that must be patiently listened to. Until yard signs sprout little legs and go to the polls on Election Day, in a presidential election with universal name recognition they are just a nice little decoration.