City Planning To Remove Political Sign Time Limits From Ordinance

No matter who won or who lost Tuesday, there is some good news to come out of the general election for everyone – the bombardment of political ads on television, online and in your mailbox is finally over . . . until the next election season, anyway.

In the coming days, Mills County residents can also expect to see the hundreds of political signs that have sprouted up in front yards and roadside ditches to come down as well.

Current ordinances on the books in Glenwood and Mills County require political signs to be taken down within seven days of balloting after an election, but by the time the next election cycle rolls around, that requirement will not be part of the city’s Land Development Ordinance, according to Glenwood Mayor Angie Winquist.

The city began taking steps to revise language in its political sign ordinance in 2025 after hearing from resident Richard Blowers, who questioned the constitutionality of the provision in the ordinance that requires political signs be taken down within seven days of an election.

The city’s current ordinance reads, “Signs announcing candidates seeking public office or pertinent political issues to be dealt with at a specific, date-certain election. Such signs shall be confined to private property and shall be removed within one week following the election to which they pertain. This requirement for removal shall not affect the right of a property owner to communicate any other message within the requirements or limitations of this ordinance.”

After hearing from Blowers in April 2025, the city agreed the time restriction provision of the ordinance is unconstitutional. While the seven-day post-election removal requirement is still on the books, Winquist said the provision will be removed soon as part of an overhaul of the city’s entire Land Development Ordinance.

“It didn’t get dropped,” It’s definitely getting changed, but it hasn’t changed, yet,” Winquist said. “Planning and Zoning is going through that Land (Development) Ordinance. It’s taken them quite some time, but they’re actually in the final stages of all those pages of those ordinances. So, that (sign removal provision) will be coming out.”

Winquist said she expects the city council to take up in the matter in the coming weeks after getting recommendations from the Mills County Planning and Zoning Commission.

“They’ll have their readings of the ordinance based upon what they (Planning and Zoning) recommend to the council,” Winquist said.

Mills County has a similar ordinance in place that restricts a political sign from being erected earlier than 45 days before an election and requires it be taken down within seven days after the date of balloting.

According to a posting on the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board website, “There are no restrictions in Iowa’s campaign sign laws on how long a campaign sign can be displayed. However, there may be community specific restrictions that apply, such as from a city or homeowners association.”

In a written statement to The Opinion-Tribune in 2025, Rita Bettis Austen, Legal Director for the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Of Iowa, suggested the U.S. Supreme Court has found ordinances similar to those currently in place in Glenwood, Mills County and other communities across Iowa to be in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“Local laws should champion the right of residents to peacefully express their thoughts and opinions, not censor them,” she said. “The First Amendment protects, at the highest level, political speech. And the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that First Amendment protections apply, indisputably, to yard signs. Regulations that are based on signs’ content, rather than neutral factors like size and placement, must satisfy very high judicial scrutiny, and are normally unconstitutional.

“Limiting the duration of some signs, but not others, based purely on their political content, is precisely the kind of content-based regulation the Supreme Court has held violates the First Amendment.”