Sumter County, SC Sign Regulations: Political Signs (2026)

Sumter County Code § 28-1 governs campaign advertising placed in unincorporated Sumter County, not inside Sumter, Mayesville, or Pinewood, which govern their own limits. Any candidate for public office, or any other person who places, causes to be placed, or furnishes for placement a campaign sign, poster, or other item of campaign advertising, must remove and dispose of it within 30 days after the close of the date of the final vote of the election that the sign promoted. The removal duty does not apply where the property owner has consented for the item to remain on that property, so a homeowner can authorize a sign to stay indefinitely.

Section 28-1(b) makes clear this removal rule sits alongside, not in place of, the county zoning ordinance (Appendix A) provisions on temporary signs, so a campaign sign can violate both the removal deadline and any separate size or placement standard the zoning ordinance sets for temporary signs. Enforcement treats each individual sign, poster, or item left up past the deadline as a separate offense, and each day that violation continues is also its own separate offense, so a candidate who leaves ten signs up for a week faces exposure calculated sign by sign and day by day.

The Sumter County Sheriff's Office and code enforcement staff handle complaints. 00, up to 30 days in jail, or both, for each separate offense counted this way.