Monterey County, CA Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

010 defines a 'political sign' as any board, poster, placard, banner or other medium 'designed to influence the action of a voter in voting for or against any candidate or measure on the ballot' at a national, state or local election, and sets the 'election period' as the sixty days before the election plus election day and the ten days after. 020 sets the placement rules: no political sign may be erected earlier than sixty days before the relevant election; any sign wired for lighting or movement needs a building permit from the County Building Services Department; signs cannot obstruct traffic signs, signals or pedestrian and vehicular sightlines; and no sign may go on another person's property without the owner's or tenant's written permission, which on vacant land must be attached to the back of the sign itself.

Every sign also requires a statement of responsibility on file with the Director of Planning naming who will place and remove it and who will reimburse the county for any removal costs, and the sign cannot exceed the maximum size allowed in its zoning district; where that size would otherwise need a building or use permit for an ordinary sign, political signs are held to that same permitting requirement. 030 requires removal within ten days after the election, bars re-posting primary-election signs for the general election, and lets the Director of Planning remove noncompliant or abandoned signs after notice. 040.