Election signs must be cleaned up within seven days following an election in Kamloops.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - The elections are over but there are still some of those brightly-coloured election signs lying around. They should all be gone soon though, candidates are required to remove them by this weekend.

The Ministry of Transportation has the strictest regulations, requiring signs to be removed the next working day after the general voting day. In Kelowna candidates have four days. In Vernon, Penticton and Kamloops they have a leisurely seven days.

If signs are found along highways after the one day maintenance contractors will remove them, and invoice the owner for that cost. In town candidates can be fined upwards of $100 plus clean up costs, but bylaw officers encourage compliance before ticketing.

Bylaw officers in each city say compliance is usually pretty high and they prefer to deal with it that way.

“Generally we receive good cooperation with sign removal after the election,” Kamloops Community Safety Manager Jon Wilson says. “If there are signs missed and we receive a complaint, we would first attempt to contact the candidate.”

Kelowna, Vernon and Penticton report the same type of strategy, though Vernon bylaw officers will clean up any signs they see and then call candidates to pick them up, where the other cities call the candidates to have them clean the signs up before officers will consider grabbing them.

“Officers on shift will watch out for them over the next few days,” Vernon Bylaw Compliance Manager Clint Kanester says. “Most are pretty good about cleaning up, but there may be a few still kicking around.”

If anyone sees candidate signs still kicking around after the weekend (or anytime now in Kelowna) they should call their local bylaw office to report where it is. Bylaw officers will then contact the candidate to have it cleaned up. Anyone with a sign on their own private property should remove it as well.

“We hope candidates will clean up their community,” Simone Blais of the City of Penticton notes.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2014