Are The Road Signs Worth It?

With the Republican primary in the race for Springfield District Supervisor about a month away (it’ll be on June 12), both Pat Herrity and Stanley Reid have already had signs up throughout the Springfield District for several weeks now. Since I already knew there was a primary in this race and had briefly met Mr. Herrity while he was out canvassing, I wasn’t too surprised too see the signs popping up.

After awhile, however, I began to wonder how efficient it is for the candidates to be putting up signs. Why? Because even as someone who constantly follows politics, I have already become somewhat used to seeing the signs along the road and don’t really pay much attention to them. I imagine there are plenty of other people who have had a similar reaction. This ultimately means that when June 12 rolls around, there is a chance that people will forget that the signs they stopped paying attention to weeks ago actually were actually telling them to vote.

Will this happen to every voter? No, and there will probably be some people who go out to the polls simply because the signs reminded them of the race. The problem is, however, that this is a primary in an off year election which means that there will already be low turnout. On top of that, I imagine there are potential voters who don’t even know what the Springfield supervisor does or if they live in the district. In other words, the need for candidates to motivate their supporters to get out to the polls is an even more daunting task than it is for candidates running in years when turnout is traditionally higher.

The signs the candidates have put up might give them some name recognition, but they fall well short of providing reasons as to why people should feel motivated to vote in the primary. This isn’t to say that if a presidential candidate put up a road sign it would motivate people to vote, but a presidential candidate’s sign might trigger a memory of something a person might have read about in the paper or heard about on the evening news. In this case, however, the mass media isn’t devoting a lot of attention (if any) to the race, so that spark won’t be there.

I am therefore inclined to say that due to the timing of when the signs went up and the amount of money spent on them, I think the money and time spent on these signs could have been better utilized elsewhere.