Five Butler County municipalities — in addition to Connoquenessing Township, which this week stopped enforcing its own — have ordinances on the books about political signs, particularly for those posted in rights-of-way. In this file photo, a Butler PennDOT manager piles campaign signs removed from rights-of-way by PennDOT workers.

Although it’s been seven years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided municipalities could not regulate signs posted by residents on their private property solely because they convey a political message, many communities still have such rules in place.

“Unfortunately, it's pretty common,” said Rich Ting, an attorney with the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “A lot of ordinances are still on the books that have those types of restrictions, and they just haven't been updated in a long time.”

While Connoquenessing Township recently elected to stop enforcing its own sign ordinance for political signs, several municipalities in Butler County have some restrictions on signs conveying political messages or advocating for specific candidates, although none — other than Connoquenessing’s — appear to restrict political signs on private land.

According to Butler County, five municipalities other than Connoquenessing have ordinances requiring political signs to have permits in certain circumstances.

In Middlesex Township, for example, permits for political signs must “be obtained by one person from each political party,” who is then responsible for “all of the political party’s signs during any campaign.” This applies, however, only to signs posted in the right-of-way, and not to those erected on private property.

“If somebody wants to put a sign up on their own property, they can put it up and leave it up,” said Middlesex township manager Adam Hartwig. “We're erring on the side of freedom of speech. We don't want to infringe on anybody's right to express their opinions or beliefs on their property.”

This is a similar restriction to those in other areas around the county.

Seven Fields, for instance, allows election and political campaign signs on private property “with the owner’s permission,” although only four signs are permitted on a residential lot and two on a non-residential lot.

But candidates must receive a permit to erect signs on Route 228 in the borough, with candidates limited to two signs along the state highway separated by 2,000 linear feet. They also must provide a $100 security deposit, which is returned if the signs are removed within a week of the election.

Borough manager Tom Smith said the permitting and deposit process is to ensure the candidates remove signs and don’t clutter the state route.

Ting said municipalities cannot place content-based restrictions on signs on private property — meaning restrictions on signs in rights-of-way may be constitutional — and encourage people with concerns about their municipality’s ordinance on signs on private property to contact the ACLU.

“We want to make sure that people know what their rights are to display signs on their own property, particularly now in the midst of a primary election season,” Ting said. “If people are facing barriers from their municipalities to bring up non-commercial signs on their own property then they should reach out to us.”