Election posters

Lab_Mouse

Is it illegal to vandalise them or talke them down?

jimmylawman

Lab_Mouse wrote: »

Is it illegal to vandalise them or talke them down?

They are private property, they cost money to print and erect. There are statutory limits around when and where they can be placed. If you have a problem with them the correct course of action would be to contact the local authorities (who are responsible for policing these things) or an alternative and perhaps more constructive point of view might be to contact the candidate directly - they would usually be more than willing to remove or relocate the poster rather than losing it to the authorities and perhaps incurring fines.

I am aware of an election poster being placed at some effort and expense to a candidate at a particular crossroads. Twice the poster appeared to have been knocked down or stolen and twice volunteer teams went out to replace it, on first occasion finding it in a nearby ditch, second time having to replace it (at e600 a pop - it was a large one). After two attempts and two weeks elapsed (which is a lifetime during a four week election campaign) the candidate was getting increasingly frustrated at the difficulty keeping this poster fixed at the particular location. Anyway not half as frustrated it turned out, as the householder who it materialised has been knocking it down every time it was replaced because it blocked a line of sight coming from their driveway. A fair point from the householder, but it was not an obvious problem due to the angle and incline of the driveway and a simple phone call to the party or candidate on the first day would have avoided an awful lot of frustration and unnecessary effort on both sides.

Lab_Mouse

Thanks Jimmy was just curious.