By SARA CLIFFORD and SUZANNAH COUCH, The Democrat
Driving the back roads in a presidential election season, it’s easier than normal to see why Brown County is such a colorful place.
No, we’re not talking about the leaves, but the divergent viewpoints that pop up in neighbors’ yards: “Dump Trump” on one side of the street, “Keep America Great” on the other.
Sometimes, signs go missing. In the past 10 days, three people have reported stolen signs to the newspaper — some taken multiple times.
That’s not an unusual thing, said Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams.
While you have every right to express your freedom of speech by erecting a sign, you do not have the right to take down signs you don’t agree with or don’t want to see.
“It has amazed me that our freedom of speech has been attacked like this in Brown County,” wrote Norm Altop, an Air Force veteran who had his signs taken down and stolen twice in two days.
“Over the history of this great country, many, many heroes have died for the right of freedom of speech,” he wrote. “The person or persons responsible for the theft of my sign has spit in the face of those heroes.”
Stealing a political sign is considered theft, or possibly conversion, Adams said. Both are Class A misdemeanors and punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
But though the prosecutor hears about signs being stolen, he rarely has enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime.
“We would file theft charges if we believed we could prove the matter beyond a reasonable doubt, and I always encourage folks to protect their signs with trail cameras,” he said.
“To date, we have not had sufficient evidence to file theft charges against any person.”
Speech in sign season
During election season, the Brown County Planning Department doesn’t regulate any type of sign, even if that sign has nothing to do with politics.
The basis of that practice: freedom of speech, and a 2015 Supreme Court case out of Arizona. It involved a church whose signs were limited to a certain size by a town government.
In July 2017, a new Indiana state law went into effect which says that, in general, governments can’t treat signs differently based on their content. A community can’t have different rules for political signs, church signs, directional signs or other types if the distinction is based on what the sign says or what its purpose is.
That law also says that a government can’t limit the number or size of signs you put out for a 66-day period around a primary or general election — even if those signs have nothing to do with the election. The only exception is for public safety, such as a sign obstructing a driver’s view of a road.
That period starts 60 days before an election and ends at the beginning of the sixth day after the election.
Limits on free speech
“Free speech” and “freedom of expression” are terms that are often invoked when citizens are participating in political activities, especially those that may evoke strong feelings on an opposing side.
There are limits to free speech, said Mark Williams, an attorney who also serves on the Brown County Election Board as the Republican representative.
“The Constitution, as it’s been interpreted basically since the founding, allows for the abridgement of fundamental rights as long as the state — that is, the government — has a compelling interest to take that action, and the means by which they choose to take that action is reasonable,” he said.
For instance, you have a “right” to yell “fire” in a crowded theater, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get off scot-free if that action harms the welfare of other citizens. In the case of elections, “the government has a compelling interest in assuring a free and fair election and in assuring that voters are not intimidated and to assure that there is no occurrence of events which could intimidate a voter,” Williams said.
Electioneering is example, he said. These are rules about what you can wear when you go to vote, or what you can talk about when you’re waiting in line.
Are you electioneering?
IC 3-14-3-16 prohibits anyone from “expressing support or opposition to any candidate or political party … in any manner that could reasonably be expected to convey that support or opposition to another individual” on election day in the polls, in the chute (the waiting area where voters stand), or an area where absentee voting is taking place. Electioneering also includes wearing or displaying clothing, signs or buttons with a candidate’s name or picture within those voting zones.
It is also against election rules for a candidate, supporter or any other person to be in the chute, the 50-foot area from the entrance to a poll, unless they are voting.
Supporters can be at polls greeting voters or holding signs for their candidates, but they must be outside that 50-foot chute.
Violations could be prosecuted as Class A misdemeanors.
The chute area is marked with orange cones at the in-person early voting site at Deer Run Park, and will be marked at all the other voting sites that will be set up on election day, Nov. 3, Williams said.
Williams said he helped out with in-person early voting recently and had to gently remind some people of electioneering rules.
”I know that there have been people who had caps on that were inappropriate under the electioneering statute that had to be asked to leave, remove and take their caps out,” he said.
”The very, very busy day … when it was very warm, I kind of worked out in the entryway there to have people move through as quickly as possible to get them out of the sun, and when you get people together that know each other and you’re there to vote, it’s a natural thing to want to talk politics, and I would just remind them that we cannot discuss politics at the polls,” he said.
”Everybody said, ‘You’re right, our mistake.’”
Most of the time, people just aren’t aware of those rules, he said.
”If someone wants to be sure that they don’t go have to change clothes, or walk back to their car to put up a hat, then they should just comply with those requirements,” Williams said of the electioneering law.
”Frankly, with the exception of just people inadvertently (talking) or people wearing candidate garb, I’m not aware of any other problems — nobody standing there preaching one candidate over another or anything like that,” he added.
On its face, a law against electioneering seems to run counter to the idea of freedom of expression, Williams said. However, the sentiment behind it is “to assure that the voters are free to vote their conscience.”
“If somebody is crying that their constitutional rights are being abridged,” he said, “I think the answer to that is, ‘No, their fundamental constitutional rights are being protected by temporary curtailment of other fundamental rights, and it’s necessary to be sure that there’s not an abridgement of rights.”
