How To Best Sign Placement

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Yard signs get votes. It's that simple, and it's common knowledge, so we won't bore you with an explanation. However, the placement of your signs can have a greater impact if done correctly.

This part of your strategy also takes advantage of the voter targeting and mapping tools of webElect. Here are the steps to take:

1. Identify your precincts that have the greatest number of registered voters.
2. Run queries using the the Voter Targeting screens for a few different demographics, such as:
   • ALL Registered Voters in the precinct.
   • ONLY Registered Voters in the precinct with a voting score over 50.
   • ONLY Registered Voters in the precinct with the correct party affiliation or "other" party.
3. For each query create a map of the precinct with pinpoints on all of the voting households, just like you do when creating a walk packet. Make sure to print the query output in a list along with the map.
4. Look carefully at each of the maps that resulted from the queries. You want to notice the clusters of pinpoints on the map where streets or neighborhoods are densely populated with voting households. Some ideal features to look for include:
   • Long Dead End streets with many voting households.
   • Neighborhoods with only 2 or 3 entry/exit points into the community, but with many voting households.
   • Residential areas with high traffic volume due to other reasons (commercial, religious, etc.) and surrounded by voters.
5. Based on this knowledge, circle the areas on the maps that would be your most effective locations for signs.
6. Using the walk list data that was printed with the map, visit these key locations, talk to the voters at the residence, ask for their support, and ask if they will place a sign in their yard. As the candidate for office, you have a much greater effect on constituents than a campaign volunteer. As you canvas neighborhoods to win votes, don't spend your time going door-to-door. Go to the key locations you identified.
   On a long dead end street, the most important houses are the two houses at the intersection, because everyone else on the street drives past these two houses everytime they go anywhere. Also, any houses on the other side of the intersecting street are great for signs. These are the two-four houses where you want your yard signs. Let your volunteers visit all of the rest of the houses on the street. But make sure you win the support of the critical homes at the intersection point and get signs in those yards. Make the use of your time most effective by personally visiting these critical sign locations.
   A sign tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac is almost worthless, because the only voters that ever see it are the homeowners and maybe their two neighbors.
   However, a well placed sign at the entry point to a cul-de-sac, dead-end, or "no outlet" street advertises to everyone on the street.
   This strategy is especially useful for campaigns with a limited number of yard signs available to place.