Residents in Columbus, West Point noticing fewer campaign signs in 2020

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Just days remain until Election Day, a time when one would expect to start seeing candidates and their supporters taking their campaigning efforts to the next level.

But some folks in the Golden Triangle say they feel like they’ve seen fewer campaign signs this year compared to years past.

“I want the people to know in my community that these are the people we should stand behind,” says Roy Turner.

That’s why life-long Columbus resident Turner says he has signs supporting U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Espy and District 5 Election Commissioner Tiffany Turner in his front yard. But Turner says he’s seeing less campaign signs than usual in his neighborhood.

“You don’t have as many out as they usually do because the streets usually be full of campaign signs and stuff,” he says. “People be putting them in their yards and stuff.”

Turner says he plans on adding a sign supporting the Biden-Harris presidential ticket but says local candidates have made their material more available.

“Mike Espy has and Tiffany (Turner) have but as far as people from Biden and Harris campaign, we haven’t really seen them people campaigning in this area,” he says.

Trump-Pence supporter Amy Buckley says she has had even more difficulty in getting a sign in the West Point area.
“I do have a couple neighbors with a Biden sign and a Trump sign but I have seen zero access to the Biden signs and the Trump signs,” she says.

Buckley also says she has noticed less campaign signs this year and offered several possible reasons.

“[COVID-19] has changed a lot of things and maybe the hostility with this crazy election,” she says. “You got the crazy democrats and you got the crazy republicans.”

Buckley says that more and more people may want to avoid that hostility by not displaying a campaign sign for the presidential candidate they support.

“I think everybody wants to avoid it,” she says. “To avoid the election all together. But everybody should vote for sure.”

Turner agrees.

“Politics play a little part in it and stuff like that and a lot of people don’t want people to know who they’re voting for and stuff like that,” he says.