Charleston, SC Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Article XV of Chapter 19 consists of a single operative section. Section 19-441 was enacted by Ordinance No. 1995-489 on October 10, 1995, and amended the following year by Ordinance No. 1996-47 on February 27, 1996, with the ban itself taking effect January 1, 1996. The section reaches two categories of right-of-way within Charleston's corporate limits: streets and highways maintained by the State of South Carolina, and any right-of-way maintained by the City of Charleston, so it applies regardless of which government agency is responsible for the road.

The prohibition is narrow in subject matter, reaching only signs promoting a political candidate or a political party, and it is placed in the traffic and vehicles chapter rather than the zoning ordinance's general sign article, reflecting its origin as a right-of-way obstruction rule rather than a land-use sign standard. Article XV contains no separate size, timing, or removal procedure of its own; enforcement, like other traffic-chapter offenses that do not state their own fine, falls to the Code's general penalty section, § 1-16. Because the ban applies specifically to placement within a public right-of-way, it does not by its terms reach a political sign placed on private property with the owner's consent, a separate question governed elsewhere in the Code.