Kent County, DE Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Political signs sit inside Section 205-228, the list of sign types the County excludes from regulation under Article XVIII, alongside items like small residential name signs, government-erected traffic and legal notice signs, and produce stands. That exclusion means a political sign does not need the sign permit that Section 205-229 otherwise requires from the Department of Planning Services, Division of Planning, before erecting any other on-premises or off-premises sign. J exemption only covers signs that are temporary and nonilluminated, so a lit or permanently mounted campaign sign falls back under the general sign rules and does need a permit.

Size is capped at 32 square feet, the same ceiling the code gives to on-premises produce signs elsewhere in Section 205-228. Timing is the other hard limit: the sign has to come down within 15 days after the election it relates to, and the code puts that removal duty explicitly on the candidate and/or whoever erected the sign, not on the property owner if that is a different person. Because Section 205-228 signs are excluded from regulation only except for those stated in Section 205-227, a political sign still cannot use flashing, oscillating, or wind-activated elements, cannot impede traffic sightlines, and cannot be placed in the public right-of-way, all general prohibitions that apply across every excluded sign category.