Unconstitutional Sign Ordinances

Bill Lueders highlights some unconstitutional city ordinances. 

Sec. 13-1-221(a)(20) of Monona’s code of ordinances states: “Signs on behalf of candidates for public office or measures on election ballots…shall be erected not earlier than thirty (30) days prior to the primary election and removed within seven (7) days following the general election.” First offenders face fines between $50 and $500.

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Madison also restricts political signs. Matt Tucker, the city’s zoning administrator, says residences may have only one sign per cause per street frontage. (Corner houses have two frontages; most houses have one.) The signs must be no larger than 12 square feet. And they’re allowed only from the first day that nomination papers can be circulated — June 1 for fall elections, Dec. 1 for spring ones — to about a week after the election.

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That’s probably a good thing, since both Madison and Monona’s ordinances are on shaky ground. In 2004, the U.S. District Court in Eastern Wisconsin struck down a Pewaukee ordinance prohibiting election campaign signs more than 45 days before an election.

“The First Amendment came into play and prevailed,” says Dennis Morvak, a campaign auditor with the state Government Accountability Board. He thinks ordinances like the ones in Madison and Monona are “inconsistent with that decision and would be vulnerable in Wisconsin.”

GAB director Kevin Kennedy notes that state’s law “basically says municipalities can’t regulate” these signs unless they interfere with traffic visibility. And the Pewaukee decision, though not binding, “gives a pretty good roadmap” for how courts would respond to other challenges.