INTRO: This is 91.9 FM WUOT. I’m ChrissyKeuper. In case you haven’t noticed, this is election time in East Tennessee—in fact, today is Election Day. And it would be hard not to notice, thanks to the thousands and thousands of yard signs that currently adorn our front yards and intersections. Those yard signs are cheap, they’re colorful and they’re everywhere. Last week, WUOT’s Matt Shafer Powell visited one early voting site, where yard signs have become as much a part of campaign culture as the dubious promise and the baby in need of a kiss…
A hopeless romantic might say the collection of campaign signs on the corner of Robertsville Road and the Oak Ridge Turnpike looks something like a flower garden--- a festive, mid-summer explosion of reds, yellows and blues...
Montage 01 :16 …banned statewide
(This is ridiculous all these signs. It’s ugly, it’s a nuisance There’s some people’s got, I bet you, eight, nine signs out. You know, everybody put one a piece. Look! There’s three of one man—right there. Just right next to each other! I believe they should be banned statewide)
Well, so much for hopeless romance. Charles Guthrie, Ruby Roberson and Georgia Hudson all had to walk the gauntlet of yard signs to get to the Oak Ridge Visitors’ Center—which is also an Anderson County voting site…
Matt Stand-up 01 :26 …caravan feel
(There are hundreds, I mean hundreds of these campaign signs popping out of the lawn in front of the community center. There’s a row of pick-up trucks backed up against the curb. Each one has a huge campaign in the bed of it. There are shade tents all over the place, with candidates and volunteers smiling and waving at anyone who passes by. The whole place has kind of a circus or caravan feel to it)
For candidates and their volunteers, this is prime real estate. Patti Skelton’s son-in-law Ryan Spitzer is running for a judgeship and the signs give her one more chance to get his name out in front of the voters before they cast their ballots…
Patti 01 :08 …want to do
(I know there’s quite a bit of signs around here, but you know, it’s not obstructing traffic or anything and it’s doing what we want to do)
County Commission candidate Denny Phillips hasn’t throw any of his signs into the mosh pit in front of the visitor’s center. But he doesn’t have a problem with those candidates who do. And he thinks it makes for a festive atmosphere, something pointed out to him by a handful of out-of-town visitors…
Denny 03 :08 …seriously here
(Contrary to some of the naysayers here, they said it looked really neat and that it looked like an event and that we take our politics seriously here)
Ben Donahower is an elections strategist and blogger who writes a lot about campaign signs. He says signs can help the right candidate get a little name recognition. But a sign can be a poor investment if it’s lost in the shuffle. His advice? Go crazy…
Ben 02 :10 …possibly miss it
(I worked with a candidate that had blue background with blaze, hunter-orange names. And it was the ugliest yard sign you ever did see, but you couldn’t possibly miss it)
In this digital age, yard signs almost have an old-world kind of charm—like campaign buttons and slogans like “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”. But Donahower says they still have a place in a modern campaign…
Ben 01 :06 …notice yard signs
(There’s absolutely a place for it in the 21st century. There are people who notice yard signs)
If you hate the signs, like some people do, just be patient. Various laws and ordinances require candidates to remove them in the coming weeks--- just in time to start putting them up again for the November election. I’m Matt Shafer Powell, WUOT News.