Must be the season of the signs

If you elected a candidate on how many signs he or she put out, there is no doubt who would win the new 6th Senate seat hands down. Republican Glen Urquhart of Rehoboth Beach, who is facing off against Ernie Lopez of Lewes, has signs on every major and back road in the area, and I saw him Aug. 29 putting up more signs along Route 5. To keep pace, Lopez has fired back with a fair amount of signs himself.

On the Democrat side, Mike Miller of Lewes may not have the most signs out on the roads, but he sure does have the largest ones; they can be seen from one-half mile away. Miller is running against Andy Staton of Rehoboth Beach and Bob Frederick of Rehoboth Beach.

Signs are also plentiful in the Milton area as five Milton-area candidates vie for the new 20th Representative District seat. On the Democrat side, it's a toss up on the number of signs between former Sussex County Councilman Lynn Rogers and Marie Mayor. Rogers owns a sign company so he is probably saving a big push in sign placement the last 10 days before the primary. On the Republican side, Stephen Smyk and Tom Jones are placing their signs sporadically.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the effectiveness of political signs?

Glad I asked. According to The Measurement Standard web site, every lawn sign represents six to 10 votes for a candidate. And politicians are convinced that lawn signs mean more than just one vote. There is a theory out there that the person with the lawn sign is serious enough about the candidate to get friends and neighbors out to vote.