Candidates must keep track of deadlines to remove campaign signs

Cleaning up after a campaign is as much a part of politics as winning or losing.

We looked into what is and isn’t allowed with campaign signs in the state and within local municipalities.

“Other times the homeowner may move it, thinking they’ll get better visibility closer to the road,” said Zac Burch, the communications manager for Florida Department of Transportation District 1.

State law is clear, campaigns have to take their signs down within 30 days, but cities like Fort Myers and Sanibel have shorter windows. The signs have to be down within five days, which has already passed.

“Honestly, it’s the campaign’s responsibility to make sure,” Burch said.

In unincorporated Lee County, campaigns have another three days before the signs need to go. In any event, the signs that are up can only be on private property.

“The roadways, the curbs, the sidewalks, pathways, power poles, etc., they are all going to be in the right of way,” Burch said. “So anything that is within that, it is off-limits to signage.”

Mayoral candidate Kevin Anderson in Fort Myers had some signs on some right of ways, but he told us they didn’t start off there.

“You have some people who go around and move them because they think it is funny to move signs,” Anderson said.

FDOT told us they do not search for campaign signs in the right of way, but FDOT workers pick them up if they see them and take them to the nearest office or contact the campaign so the can be retrieved.

FDOT said that if you do have political signs in the right of way, put them back on private property if you’re still running for office.

For candidates no longer running for office, Burch says, “Please, go out and remove them.”