Voting in the 2020 election is over but there are still plenty of yard signs out supporting candidates from across the board.

Local municipalities across Wisconsin have the right to regulate if and when these signs come down.

Dan Meister, Chief of the Fox Valley Metro Police said, “Looking at our local ordinance, there is an ordinance that regulates temporary signs, such as political signs, and it basically states that a political sign can be erected for 60 days but it has to be removed within ten days after its use has expired.”

The Chief says that enforcement of this ordinance is hard because they would need to determine what constitutes a political sign and the date at which the sign no longer serves a purpose.

He continued, “I don’t think it’s an issue, we don’t get a lot of calls on this but if we do we would look at it situationally and use different levels of enforcement depending upon what the circumstances are.”

The Chief said that he hopes that if people have an issues with a yard sign they will first be neighborly and speak to those that they are concerned with before involving police and escalating the situation but wants everyone to feel comfortable calling the police when they need assistance.

And while everyone has a right to put signs on their personal property there places around our homes where you can not put a sign.

“You can’t put it in the right of way you have to put it in your own yard. The right of way would be that area of grass that’s between, if you’re in the city that’s between the side walk and the road or if you’re in the country it would basically be the ditch,” said Matt Lederer, County Party Chair for the Outagamie Democrats.

Individual municipalities have varying ordinances regarding temporary signs to find out more about the regulations on our home visit your local government’s website.