Utah protects political signs and permits displays beside sidewalks

People must not knowingly damage political signs or attach objects that substantially hide their messages or misrepresent their meaning. These rules cover signs supporting or opposing a candidate or ballot measure. The sign-owner exception covers owners required to include payer information on their signs. Breaking the damage or interference rule is a class B misdemeanor, a criminal offense. Exceptions cover certain owners, people responsible for placement, and officials removing signs as part of their duties. The exceptions also cover agents of people responsible for placement and property owners, including owners of an adjacent right-of-way, or their agents. Knowingly attaching political signs to utility poles, light poles, electrical utility boxes, traffic control devices, or railroad signs or signals is an infraction, a lower-level offense. These sign-protection rules took effect May 6, 2026.

Starting January 1, 2027, political advertisers must make required payer and authorization statements clear and noticeable. The requirements cover payer and authorization statements for candidate advertising and specified advertising about ballot measures. Political signs less than 24 by 18 inches are exempt. A sign is also exempt if a candidate or the candidate’s campaign committee pays for and authorizes it, and it clearly and noticeably names that candidate. Required statements on billboards and other outdoor advertising facilities must be readable from a reasonable intended viewing distance. Bumper stickers, campaign pins, buttons, pens, and similar small items that cannot conveniently carry the statement are also exempt. The advertising disclosure provisions take effect January 1, 2027.

Local governments may not ban eligible people from posting political signs on the strip between a road and sidewalk. This permission covers the strip between a roadway and an adjacent sidewalk. The adjacent property owner or lawful occupant must be required by a local rule or agreement to maintain the strip. Other people may post signs with that person’s consent. Local governments may regulate signs to prevent traffic, pedestrian, or sightline hazards. The park-strip provisions took effect May 6, 2026.

Sign owners required to include payer information must remove roadway signs no later than 14 calendar days after the election. Roadways include roads, road rights-of-way, and specified road and transit infrastructure. The owner’s deadline applies to the election the sign concerns. Anyone may remove objects that unlawfully hide or misrepresent signs, signs attached to prohibited equipment, and overdue roadway signs. Anyone may remove signs meeting the law’s size and missing-payer-statement test or violating the referenced ban on electioneering near polling places. Officials removing signs as part of their duties, and people removing signs under the payer-statement or polling-place exceptions, must deliver them to a designated local collection site. Permission to remove a sign does not excuse other crimes committed during removal. The removal rules took effect May 6, 2026. The advertising disclosure provisions they reference take effect January 1, 2027.

Counties and cities must provide collection sites, safeguard deposited signs, and make reasonable efforts to reach covered owners. The process covers signs removed during official duties or under the payer-statement and polling-place exceptions. Covered owners are those required to include payer information. Owners have five business days after a conversation or voicemail notice to reclaim their signs. Counties and cities may discard signs if owners miss the pickup deadline, cannot be reached, cannot be identified, or have no obtainable contact information. They may seek storage or disposal costs only after at least three previous occasions in the same election cycle when that owner’s signs went unclaimed after notice or the owner could not be reached. Charges cannot exceed $20 per deposit, regardless of how many signs from the same owner it contains. A mailed notice must identify the sign count and charge amount. These rules took effect May 6, 2026. Owners must pay within 30 calendar days after receiving a mailed charge notice, with a reasonable chance to show they do not owe it. They may use campaign funds.