A simple solution to the poster blight
Maybe not surprisingly, after a day of putting up election posters, I’m now even more put-off by the things than ever. They are an awful eyesore as every party and candidate ties to outdo one each other with more and bigger posters.
Attribution: nofrills, Copyright: BY-NC
Of course, there is a need for the public to be made known that (1) an election is happening and (2) who’s standing. In particular, new candidates need to be able to make themselves known to the public.
Attribution: Grooble, Copyright: BY-NC-ND
But we don’t need to blight our city and country with these eye sores. A simple solution exists in countries like France, Netherlands and Japan:
The council erects temporary billboards at key locations and allocates an equal number of spaces to every candidate. The public sees an election is happening and who’s running. And the candidates get their word out, without any candidate having more say than any other.
Attribution: harry_nl, Copyright: BY-NC-SA
The Dutch, with their knack for efficiency, also include civic information like the date of the election and where to get more information.
Why can we not do the same here?