Informal Poll Here in the BattleGround State of PA
 

I've been working day shift since my return from vacation, which has been disorienting to say the least. The most surprising part of it all has been the effect of working days on my online time.

I'm also becoming a whore to television. I may work on slave to fashion next.

But anyway ...

As I'm driving home each night I've been paying attention to lawn decorations.

Specifically, campaign signs.

This past Monday, 9/20 poll results were:

Bush - 13
Kerry - 0
Driveway Sealcoating - 2

By Wednesday, 9/22, things had changed a bit

Bush - 15 (including one lovingly handmade sign using bumperstickers and a painted over realtor's sign)
Kerry - 1
Driveway Sealcoating remained steady, but there has been a challenge from an exterior painting guy.

Today's results, Friday 9/24

Bush - 17 (this number does not include the 'official' sign now posted by handmade sign dude. It's next to the handmade sign, but does not block the view of the original one)
Kerry - 2 (the signs flank one driveway. I can't tell if there are actually two property owners involved in the posting, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt for fairness in polling)
Driveway Sealcoat is down by one, but there is a big office furniture clearance sale this weekend.

You are in Bush-Rove-ia, aren't you. It's a little more balanced down here, I'll have to get a count on Monday.
I have noticed my staunchly republican neighbors (all of them), always had plenty of signs up for all the rep. candidates. This year, zip, nada, nothing. Not one of them has a single sign out. Curiouser & curiouser. :confused:

Montgomery County does run more towards the R side of the line, 'tis true.

When I go to vote in the Primary every year I approach the short (i.e., nonexistent) line at the check in desk and announce "Hi, I'm the Democrat, yes, there really is one in the county."

Delaware County in general is something of a Republican stronghold, so I was surprised to see 2 Kerry signs in my neighborhood. No Bush ones so far, tho not for long I think since the guy across the street is a committeeman for the Republicans.

As a registered Libertarian, I am met with universal scorn and derision at my polling place.

Yard sign season is supposed to begin during the last three weeks, but maybe the rules have changed with these new signs that don't get waterlogged and such.

Me too, but not for my politics. ;)

Montco leans (R), but went (D) in 2000, I think.

I've seen a couple of Bush, but way more "Yard Sale", "Power Washing", and "Driveway Sealcoating". Also one "Window Tinting".

On and near utility poles, yard sale and New Homes for sale are the clear winners, with "Finally!" health insurance and weight loss scams in second place (and dropping whenever I get a chance...). Political signs not yet on the map there.

I always thought Bucks County had a decent mix of Republicans and Democrats.

Signage on my route to school, Elverson to Glenmoore;
Bush in the lead by 1 sign, 5, to Kerry's 4. More Kerry signs the further East I travel (from Stoltzfus country). Re/Max retains Chester County's real estate market share with 3 signs. Long and Foster, Prudential and Coldwell Banker have 1 each. Not much driveway work or painting going on. One hand written sign on Font Rd in Glenmoore declared "STEALING MY VOTE sign does not change vote something something Kerry Edwards" No idea what that's all about, didn't include it in poll.

When we lived in the Far Northeast, Dubya had a slight lead. I haven't driven around our new neighborhood enough to notice who's winning, but I suspect Kerry by a large margin.

As I was on my evening walk in the old hood a few weeks ago, I passed by two guys, maybe a bit younger than me. Apparently, they were talking about the proliferation of Allyson Schwartz signs in the area (she is the Democrat running for PA's 13th Congressional District...and should win). One of the guys said something like, "Well, if they start tearing down Melissa Brown (the Republican opponent who also ran in 2002 and lost) signs, we'll start tearing down Allyson Schwartz signs. She's nothing but a liberal who supports cop killers and I just don't like her."

My back windshield is still intact--I've had a Kerry sticker on it since June.

It looks about even from here to the border which is pretty suprising as Dems get no love in Susq. Co.

Is it okay to switch wardens with a war on?

You can't get an accurate count here in Montgomery County, OH. Somebody keeps ripping off all the Kerry signs. It's a "big" story here--which goes a long way to explain why we are a swing state. :us:

Was in the old neighborhood this afternoon...Bush is now way ahead.

Some assmunch took the Kerry bumper sticker off my mom's car at work last week--she suspects it was her boss. I can't say I haven't been tempted to remove Dubya signs, but I wouldn't do it--people should be able to profess their support for a candidate without malice.

Syc! I've missed your posts. Is the hiatus ending? :)

*bows* You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Not just yet...probably around the 15th or so. I've been posting some new stuff to the Bosque though, so be sure to check over there. I might even be able to put Radio Sycamore back on at the end of the month. We'll see...

How about torching them with a cheerful mixture of propellants? No malice just good fun. :3eye:

Is arson a crime of malice? Why go for the sign when there's a combustable building behind the sign.

In your new neighborhood what you have to find a way to protect is your registration sticker.

They cut them off. With tin snips.

This weeks tally (from Wednesday, regular route home from work. During the big rainstorm. The one with the flooding, so it was a bit of a challenge to keep count)

Bush 19, Kerry 8

I watched the debate with a friend, so I got to count signs on the way to her place, which is also in Montgomery County.

Bush 10, Kerry 3. Her neighborhood also has a number of similarly styled signs that scream "SLOW DOWN" in black on a bright yellow background. Is this some type of PSA campaign or something?

The state could easily help solve this problem by moving the keystone and putting the sticker there.

Then they'd just steal the whole damn plate.

And the state would lose the extra bucks from vanity plate and specialty plate sales.

The current placement of the registration sticker allows it to be easily visible to the fuzz when the sneak up on you, keeps the state from having to reissue the metal plates every year (I remember growing up in Illinois, where they DID send you a new plate every year. And a matching keychain so you'd be able to find your plate number when they called you on the PA in the grocery store to tell you your lights were on).

Also, the corner placement (which is now static rather than odd-year-left, even-year right, as was the case on the old blue on yellow series plates, although I have seen people who still try to paste the stickers in the 'correct' corners) makes it possible for you to have a license plate frame that covers the sticker fully or partially, and gives cops a reason other than "faulty taillight" to pull you over when they need to write some citations for revenue generation.

DC Registration stickers go in the front windshield. On the plate is a sticker that says something like "see window".

Probably because DC's primary vehicular law enforcement branch is parking enforcement, not highway patrol.

The afternoon after the debate I saw a new Bush inc. sign going up down the road. Very angry/defiant looking guy with a weed whacker was trying to make it more visible... I know Kerry beat him pretty soundly but I assume living where we do he can't be taking much heat for supporting Bush. Bush signs seem to be sprouting faster than Kerry at the moment.

Not necessarily...might take too long to pull the plate off. Missouri has gone this route with the stickers, and it seems to have helped.

For the vanity plates, you could move the sticker to a place where it is more difficult to remove, such as along the top, away from the corners. Although, the sticker might have to be shrunk for that to work.

The inside window sticker wasn't a bad idea, really. The problem was that they enacted the program only in the City/County of Philadelphia, which was incredibly--INCREDIBLY--stupid. It made us easy prey for cops outside the city.

UPDATE: At least one Kerry sign on my street has been stolen. No Bush signs have sprouted yet.

Signs in a 2nd swing stsate
 

Colorado seems more excited about local candidates than presidential ones. In a drive across town yesterday I counted 10 signs for Michael Merrifield a local democrat running for the State Legislature, 3 for Kerry, none for Bush, a handed painted sign advising of a garage sale, 3 "For Rent" signs, and one noting that the house was being remodeled by XYZ company. We don't seem to have any driveway sealcoating signs. What's that?

Oh, yeah, in Colorado we just forge those little car registration stickers. All you need is a scanner and a computer. ;)

In the extremely Kerry-friendly District of Columbia, a "ReDefeat Bush" sign was defaced with silly string and a Bush sticker.

Silly string and a Bush sticker. *Insert joke here*

Swing state MN report- from the liberal cities... On my liberal hotbed University commute: 11 Kerry lawn signs, 1 Bush.
In the bumper sticker/button/tshirt category- Kerry by a landslide. Lots of students with Kerry buttons on backpacks. some "November 2" t shirts popping up.
I did have the Kerry sticker on my bike torn off two weeks ago. But its back!

There is a definite suburban-urban divide in MN. But there is also still an independent streak The rural folks here have some tradition of being radically liberal- DFL -Farm-Labor. and are as likely to read news as attend church meetings.

Report from the Springsteen/Fogerty/REM/Brighteyes concert, (I didnt go, tickets were $75 and I had to work) but I'm told that big fun was had- I would have loved to see Fogerty with Springsteen. Neil Young stopped by too.

My family's roots are Minnesota and Wisconsin - It's been distressing watching them on <a href="http://www.electoral-vote.com/">electoral-vote.com</a>, but I'm confident they'll pull through in the end.

Going to work it's too dark. On the way home (different route), mostly industrial and commercial but in the residential 2 Kerry(same lawn), 0 Bush, quite a few for locals like Weldon and Pileggi.
The big surprise is my immediate neighborhood which always has at least 70% of the lawns posted with GOP posters. This year nada, zip, zero. I wonder if it's a change of heart that they'd rather not broadcast or maybe fear of publicly backing Bush?? :confused:

Fascinating.

This guy's yard is now sporting signs for Specter and Weldon (the incumbent Republican US Senator and US Representative respectively), but none for Bush/Cheney.

It's hard to believe he wouldn't have a Bush sign out there if he wanted one.

My town in Colorado is covered with lawn signs. By far the greatest number of them are for Michael Merrifield, a democrat up for re-election to the Colorado State Legislature (I mentioned him in another thread). In the Republican stronghold of Colorado Springs, I count on the average 3 Kerry signs for every one Bush sign. Astonishing!

This week:

Bush/Cheney 25
Kerry/Edwards 7

Speaking of nonscientific polls, let's mention Gallup. ;) They've got a peculiar formula for likely voters, that results in the following predicted voting demographics:

Total Weighted Sample: 557 Likely Voters
(2000 exit poll actual results in parentheses)
Conservative: 41% (29%)
Moderate: 41% (50%)
Liberal: 18% (20%)

GOP: 39% (35%)
Dem: 35% (39%)
Ind: 25% (27%)

Over $75,000: 32% (28%)
$50-75,000: 16% (25%)
$30-50,000: 26% (24%)
$20-30,000: 11%
Under $20K: 9%

White: 85% (81%)
NonWhite: 15% (19%)
Black: (a subset of NonWhite) 8% (10%)