There’s been some speculation about whether candidate lawn signs are up too early. Until about ten years ago that would have been correct. The city had an ordinance that prohibited the placement of campaign signs until a short time before the election – maybe 20 days? Since then, in a case brought from some other locality, the US Supreme Court held that such ordinances unduly restrict free speech rights granted by the First Amendment and the city of Lowell amended its ordinance to eliminate any time restriction on the placement of campaign signs.

I know that “signs don’t vote” but I do think that putting them up early is a wise move that helps raise name recognition for the candidate and presents a way to gauge the depth of a candidate’s support.