Augusta campaign signs draw complaints and prompt actions

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Visitors to Broad Street have more than the James Brown statue to look at, the likeness surrounded by twenty political signs…signs that are illegally placed.

“We will go out during the course of our duties and pick up those signs. We are not waiting for a magical date. This is on a daily basis, by all deputies,” said Corporal Ramon Apolinario, of the Richmond County Marshal’s Office.

It’s what you expect to see with an election underway…campaign signs. But what should not be seen are the signs on the public right of way.

“The public complains a lot because they can be considered a nuisance, because technically, if they’re in the right of way, it’s litter,” said Augusta Elections Director Travis Doss.

Georgia state law prohibits any sign from being posted in the right of way, and that includes political signs.

Right now, there are more than five dozen political signs in a storage area at the Marshal’s Department substation in south Augusta, picked up for being in violation.

“As we patrol the county, we go ahead and pick up these signs. We put them in the storage areas, we notify the Board of Elections the signage has been picked up, and there is ten says to be picked up. If they’re not picked up in those ten days, we dispose of them,” said Apolinario.

Complaints about the signs has the Board of Elections office putting campaigns on notice this week, that signs do not belong in the right of way,

“I sent an e-mail out to the candidates in the first part of this week warning them ‘if your signs are in the right of way, they will probably be disappearing’,” said Doss.

Something visitors to the James Brown statue might want to see.

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