As Election Day 2024 approaches, political signs are once again sprouting in Massachusetts, from residential lawns to road intersections. Yet, for many residents, these signs serve more like decorative colorful markers dotting the landscape, with little impact on how they plan to vote.
The use of campaign merchandise to connect with the public has been a U.S. tradition since the 1828 presidential race between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Political signs have grown more popular over time, becoming a “must-have” for every candidate as history progressed.
However, the ubiquity of these signs doesn’t necessarily translate to changing people’s minds.
Experts have demonstrated their limited effects on influencing voters’ decisions. A 2015 study led by Donald Green, a political science professor at Columbia University, found that yard signs can increase voter share by 1.7% on average. The study, co-authored by Alexander Coppock, a political science professor at Yale University, also suggests that even this small percentage increase could potentially influence thousands of voters.
Beyond trying to influence voters’ decision-making, setting up campaign signs serves a functional purpose for candidates.
“Lawn signs are part of what you call the visibility campaign,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a professor emeritus of advertising at Boston University who has worked as a political media consultant since 1974. He said setting up campaign signs is a way of showing voters that your candidate has supporters.
Campaign signs can still strengthen voters’ impressions of certain candidates. A study led by Cindy Kam, a professor at Vanderbilt University, tested this through a field experiment in Nashville in 2011.
The research team placed multiple signs for a fictitious candidate “Ben Griffin” on a local elementary school’s trafficked lawn area, visible to half of the school’s parents. Three days later, the school’s Parent Teacher Organization asked those parents to complete an online survey ranking their top three candidates for the county’s at-large council seats. In addition to “Ben Griffin,” five real candidates and another made-up name were included in the list.
It turned out that nearly a quarter of the respondents who believed in the existence of the fake “Ben Griffin” picked him as one of their top three ideal candidates.
In addition to informing the public with name recognition, these signs sometimes challenge people’s minds like “psychological warfare against the opponent and the opponent’s supporters,” Berkovitz said.
He also explained that sign placement is “more personal signaling than anything else” and “makes you feel good” as a good Democrat or a good Republican.
“Unless you have a really good slogan that is very successful for you, all that you’re doing is putting the candidate’s name on it,” Berkovitz said.
Compared to more expensive TV commercials and social media campaigns, lawn signs seem like the least expensive method of advertising.
“It’s not that expensive,” said Michael Aleo, a Northampton lawyer from Lesser, Newman, Aleo & Nasser LLP. “It’s not nothing,” he added.
Jason A. Tait, the education director from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, said that candidate and ballot question committees do indeed buy many signs.
“OCPF’s only concern is that such expenditures are disclosed to the public,” Tait said.
Campaign signs are unlikely to influence many presidential election voters in Massachusetts, a historically “blue” state where most voters have already made up their minds about their ideal future.
“If I saw a Trump sign, I would find that upsetting or disturbing,” said Susie Bruce, a lifelong Democrat resident of Cambridge. She said seeing those signs won’t influence her since she feels strongly about her own candidate decision.
Helen Snively, another Cambridge resident, said she doesn’t pay much attention to those signs even though she sees them everywhere.
“Is there anyone in Cambridge who hasn’t decided who they’re voting for?” Snively said. “Do we see any Trump signs? No,” she added.
“I take the influence from the debates and the talks. That’s how I make my decisions,” explained Phil Kajunski, a former Cambridge resident.
However, things could be significantly different in swing states.
Aleo said that seeing campaign signs going up is more like “an invitation” to vote the other way.
“When a race is as tight as it is right now, a small impact is big,” Aleo said. “Especially around areas where people are putting up signs that go a little bit against that particular district’s voting patterns, in terms of how people actually vote, it’s probably a nominal impact,” he added.
Aleo said this could make people think, “Oh, the people around me are voting this way. Should I vote?”
Berkovitz said he rarely sees lawn signs supporting Trump in the southeastern Massachusetts town where he lives, which is considered a “red” area in the state.
“Right now, the battle for government in America tends to be in the purple states,” he said.
Placing political signs might also trigger a rise in public anger. Starting in September, Massachusetts towns have received an increasing number of calls about incidents related to politics.
Dartmouth police have observed a “passionate feeling” among their local residents regarding recent sign-snatching and stolen property incidents.
Police in Tyngsborough have also warned residents to “remain respectful” due to an increasing number of vandalism and theft incidents involving political signs in town.
And in the central Massachusetts town of Sterling, police are investigating the burning of signs supporting Democrats.
“It’s morally wrong, it’s ethically wrong,” said Aleo of defacing signs. If people deface a sign because they disagree with it, he said, it creates talking points for the person whose viewpoint they’re defacing.
“It’s obviously illegal,” he said. “It’s just a disrespectful way to engage in political discourse.”
Recently, people’s anger was directed at a Hatfield family. Dr. Timothy Menz, who has lawn signs supporting Kamala Harris in his yard, received an anonymous letter turned into a banner in his family’s yard, stating “go back to where you came from,” asking “how dare you try to change the town” and claiming “you don’t know anything about what Hatfield is all about.”
Along with this banner was garbage thrown into his driveway, including a bag filled with dog feces. These unexpected angry reactions shocked Menz and his family, including his four children.
In addition to campaign signs with names of presidential candidates, ballot question signs are also popping up in residential lawns and other areas. Most of them are printed with vote “yes” or “no” on a certain question number.
However, for people who haven’t been able to look through each question online, such signs seem to provide little meaningful information.
David Callahan, an attorney living in Worcester, said that he has been better informed about the ballot questions recently by reading news reports and felt signs are not very effective for ballot questions.
“It’s unfortunate that the first time they see the questions is when they show up to vote,” he said.
Zichang Liu writes for the Gazette through the Boston University Statehouse Program.