S.D. Watch - S.D. Watch

Surprisingly, this story in the Sioux City Journal seems to have gotten little play--but should have. (I've seen no non-Sioux City media with it.)

Read: County board says signs too big

Excerpt:

ELK POINT, S.D. -- The Union County Board of Commissioners will send letters to anti- and pro-refinery groups informing them that campaign signs in the county cannot exceed 25 square feet.

Union County board chairman Doyle Karpen said Union County State's Attorney Jerry Miller told the commissioners during their meeting Monday morning that the county had received a complaint about signs reading "Vote No Hyperion" painted on 4-foot-by-8-foot plywood and displayed outside of Elk Point city limits. He said a county ordinance limits signs in rural areas to 25 square feet.

Miller said the county ordinance specific to election signs does not limit their size, but he believes the general sign ordinance applies to all signs. The law exempts only "on-site" signs, meaning business signs displayed on the business's property, from the size limit...

This strikes me as selective enforcement of the signage ordinance. First, it appears the election signage ordinance does not cover the size of electioneering signs.* Second, while I don't know for certain, but 4 x 8 signs are a standard size for campaign signs, particularly in rural areas. I can't believe prior to the Hyperion election that Rep. Herseth or Sen. Thune or Gov. Rounds didn't have 4 x 8s placed in locations in rural Union County. I'm sure I've seen such signs on I-29 as I've driven down the Interstate in Union County.

Coupled with the bogus "outcry" about Hyperion opponents painting messages on county highways, one wonders if this is further proof of Hyperion's and the County's attempts to stifle dissent against the project by regular citizens.

The source who tipped me off to this story and lives in the area certainly thinks that's the case and that the sudden enforcement against Hyperion opponents is suspicious.

Hyperion is a apparently a well-heeled company (well-heeled enough to buy land options, open an office, and buy advertising) for their project. Citizens opposed to the project don't have such resources at their disposal. Elections and democracy don't work if both sides cannot communicate their message to the voters. If Hyperion is so confident in a victory for the new zoning ordinances they support, I can't imagine that stifling some 4 x 8 hand painted signs on plywood is going to deter their cause.

*Reasonable time, place, manner restrictions on even political expression is Constitutional. However, the government cannot act in an arbitrary and capricious manner in the enforcement of those ordinances regarding signage. This is a complicated area of law. For an overview read Political Yard Signs from the First Amendment Center.

Technorati Tags: political signs, Hyperion, Union County, protest, refinery, first amendment, law, Sioux City Journal