Hamilton County has several primary election races that are contested, particularly for county council seats and county prosecutor.  With so many contested office in the May primary, the Hamilton County Commissioners issued a news release Thursday citing an action taken this week to limit the political signs at polling places as early voting begins to pick up steam.

Here is the news release from the Hamilton County Commissioners:

==================

In an effort to reduce damage to and clutter at polling places, the Hamilton County Commissioners passed an ordinance this week limiting the number of political signs allowed at each polling place.

Ordinance 04-11-22-A limits each candidate to one sign per voting location on Election Day and no more than two signs per voting location on Early Voting Days. Furthermore, the signs cannot be larger than 36” X 24”, cannot be placed with metal or wood posts, and cannot be placed in the public right of way.

“It looks like a carnival at the polling sites,“ says Commissioner Christine Altman. “Some candidates are placing four, five or more signs at a single location. Multiply that by the number of candidates and the problem is clear. The owners of the early voting locations and polling sites on election day have understandably expressed frustration over the number of signs outside their buildings and damage done by large signs.”

The ordinance is effective immediately. Early voting locations include Mercy Road Church and the Jill Perelman Pavilion in Carmel, the Roy G. Holland Memorial Park Building and Billericay Park Building in Fishers, the Judicial Center and 4H Fairgrounds in Noblesville, and City Hall and Cool Creek Nature Center in Westfield.

“Early voting locations make voting easy and convenient for our residents,” says County Clerk Kathy Williams. “But voting locations can be incredibly difficult to secure because of the time and space commitment they require. We do not want to abuse their generosity or inconvenience them with picking up errant signs.”

The ordinance also limits the amount of time the signs can be left at a location. No signs may be placed at a polling place earlier than 12 hours before the polling place opens and must be removed within four hours of a polling place closing on Election Day. Signs not removed within four hours of the polls closing will be deemed abandoned and may be removed and destroyed by the owner of the polling place and either stacked or destroyed.