It’s that time again, when signs with all the political candidates’ names consume all available public ground, and much private ground as well. They all do it; I myself have admitted to placing my own signs around on the occasion of running for an elected post (link to my confession: https://innoparticularorder.blog/2022/01/17/speech/ ) based upon the advise of political veterans. I am not proud of it.
The signs are there because, depressingly, they are effective. Studies have indicated that candidates with signs tend to draw 1.5 to 2 percent more votes than candidates without signs, and there are enough close elections around that that could actually represent the margin of victory in many of those. But what is it about these signs that causes that?
It is obvious that it’s not because these signs contain much about a candidate’s experience, because most signs are just the candidate’s name in as large a font as can fit. There isn’t any room on these signs for position statements, voting records or much else, either. Just the name, and often the office that is being sought.
What these signs do accomplish, however, is the simple business of name recognition. Candidates put these signs out there in hopes that voters will at the very least remember the candidate’s name when it comes time to vote, and cast their votes for the familiar. That this tactic is rather successful suggests that at least some people base their votes simply on the basis of a name they have heard, or, in this case, seen.
Perhaps it is little wonder then that in some races it is simply that the loudest candidate, wins. In this writer’s view, that is not a great basis upon which to decide who will represent us in the various levels of government. Along that vein, it is perhaps not surprising that campaigns have become increasingly louder and nastier than ever before; after all, if some folks will be swayed by a big ol’ sign or cheering people on a street corner just before they vote, that is just what we will get.
We can do better. And we should do better.
In no particular order 