When to Order Campaign Signs: Election Season Timeline

What Should an Election Sign Timeline Include?

A useful timeline has one line for each step and one person who owns it. Write the dates down before anyone starts the artwork, because the artwork deadline comes from the dates, not the other way around.

These are planning intervals for a typical local race, not legal dates. Your state or city may set its own window for when political signs can stand, and that rule comes first.

What Must Be Settled Before Artwork Starts?

Settle the name, the office and the disclosure line before the design begins, because one late wording change touches every product in the order. Keep the approved wording in one shared document that the candidate, the treasurer and the designer all read from.

Ask your state election office or campaign treasurer what the sign must say. Many states require a paid for by line on political advertising, and some have extra wording for signs near highways. The exact rule depends on your state and your race, so do not copy a line from another campaign.

Then check placement rules: the dates signs may stand, the public right of way, and any homeowners association limits. A supporter's yes covers their lawn, not the strip by the road. Have volunteers record the exact approved spot for every sign.

How Long Does Campaign Sign Production Take?

Production time depends on the product, and it starts when you approve the proof.

Transit comes after production and depends on the distance to your address. Weekends and holidays are not business days, so a proof approved on a Friday afternoon starts printing the next Monday.

The fastest way to lose a week is a slow proof. Every order comes with a free digital proof, and nothing prints until you approve it. Name one person who can approve, and make sure the candidate and treasurer have read the proof before that person signs off.

What Should Volunteers Do When the Order Arrives?

Open every box the day it arrives and check it against the proof. Count the signs and the stakes, look at both faces of a double-sided sign, and read the phone number or website once more.

1. Count and check. Signs, stakes, door hangers and banners against the order.
2. Split by route. Bundle signs and stakes for each volunteer with their address list.
3. Hold the reserve. Keep replacement signs in one place with one person in charge.
4. Record placements. Each volunteer marks every sign placed, with the address.

Store signs flat and dry until they go out. Coroplast is weatherproof, but a stack left leaning in a hot garage can bow.

When Should You Reorder Campaign Signs?

Reorder when the reserve drops to the count you need for the final weeks, not when it runs out. Standard signs print the next business day, so a reorder is practical late in a race, but transit still has to fit before your last placement date.

Keep the approved artwork file and the order settings, size, sides and stakes, in one place. A reorder from the same file matches the first run, so new signs look the same as the ones already in the ground. Count backward from the day you need the signs: transit days, then one business day of production, then your proof approval.

For the full counting method, see how many yard signs a local campaign needs.

What Happens to Campaign Signs After Election Day?

Collect them on a schedule, the same way you placed them. Some cities and homeowners associations set a deadline for removing political signs after an election, so check the local rule and give every volunteer a pickup date with their route list.

Use the placement list as the pickup list. Every address that got a sign gets a visit, and the volunteer marks it removed. A sign left behind for weeks after the race reflects on the candidate, win or lose.

Plan for a runoff or the next race before the first order. A sign that leaves off the election date and the year can stand again in a runoff or a future campaign, while a sign printed with a date is finished the day after. Coroplast signs stored flat and dry, with their stakes bundled beside them, are ready to go back out, and the approved artwork file means any new signs will match.

How Do You Order Campaign Signs?

Choose the product, upload your artwork or ask us to design it, approve the free digital proof, and production starts. If you already have a file, AI image to print makes it print ready for $14.99 per item. Design it for me builds the sign from scratch for $29.99 with two revisions, free on an item of $499 or more.

Start with the standard 18 x 24 inch yard sign, compare kits in the bulk yard sign kit guide, or see every campaign product on the political signs page. Every order is printed in the USA and ships for a flat $10 per product.