For the past several months political signs have taken up the scenery and clogged our minds with the phrase

“Vote for me.” Unfortunately, the signs have somehow gotten worse these past few weeks.

We applaud citizens for voicing their support for various candidates with a sign in their yard. Doing so on private property is a constitutional right.

However, the signs are cropping up on public land all over town.

A trip down Highway 80 or over to Wal-Mart can bring a seemingly endless supply of signs supporting numerous candidates.

It’s ridiculous.

It is simply against the law for those signs to be placed on public property.

It costs the city time and money to send employees out to collect the signs only to return them to the owners to be put out again.

How can someone ask for your vote, then blatantly and repeatedly break a city ordinance.

It is understood that the candidates are far too busy to place these signs themselves; they have campaign workers and supporters doing the job. Nevertheless, if they cannot manage to keep their own supporters from breaking the city’s laws, how can they be expected to set an example for the rest of us?

If elected, will they provide us with a complete list of ordinances that are OK to break?

Selma faces more important issues than what is essentially political litter, but how can we be expected to fix the big things when the small problems keep slipping through the cracks.

Before the next elections, Selma should pass tougher ordinances to crack down on the unlawful placement of campaign signs on public property.

Instead of returning the signs to candidates, it should be a “one strike and you’re out” rule.

Any sign found on public property should be immediately recycled or destroyed.

If the candidates don’t care enough about the laws they are running to uphold, maybe they will care about their checkbooks.