Offending signs snagged in Voorheesville

VOORHEESVILLE — Some campaign signs began showing up in the village before the law allowed.

According to Voorheesville’s statute, political signs are permitted in the village only four weeks before Election Day and they may remain for just three days after.

In a column running in the most recent Association of Towns’ newsletter, a legal column advises local governments that laws restricting political signs exclusively are usually found unconstitutional when challenged.
"The First Amendment protects speech," the column says. "And courts have held that ‘political speech is entitled to the highest form of protection’ by the First Amendment. A sign regulation that is based on the content of the sign, therefore, would be subject to strict scrutiny by a reviewing court, and highly unlikely to be found constitutional."

If a municipality wants to restrict political signage, the column says, it must write a content neutral law, meaning that it could restrict the placement or size of signs, but not political signs specifically.

This weekend, though, there were a dozen or so signs for Judge Joseph Teresi, who is running for re-election to the state’s Supreme Court, around the village, said Glenn Schultz, chairman of the New Scotland Republican Committee. One of those signs was on Mayor Robert Conway’s lawn; Conway is a Democrat, as is Teresi.

The sign was there when he woke up on Saturday morning, Conway said, and he took it down when he got a call from his neighbor who told him that it violated village law. He’ll put the sign out again, Conway said, now that it’s less than 28 days before the Nov. 6 election.
"It’s just a matter of" rules," said Schultz of raising the issue; he wrote an e-mail to Teresi, Conway, and The Enterprise, pointing out the breach.
"It’s not a big deal," he said. "It’s a matter of principle."

Teresi’s campaign did not return calls on Wednesday.