Flathead County planning director BJ Grieve sent out a letter last week to all local political campaign organizations and the media clarifying county regulations governing campaign signs.

“During the 2012 primary election, our office fielded lots of calls regarding political signs in rural areas of Flathead County,” he said. “There was lots of confusion over where signs could and could not be posted, how large they could be, and when they could be posted, etc.”

The county’s campaign sign regulations apply only to zoned areas, and much of the county is unzoned. A political sign is defined as “a sign with a message advocating a particular candidate, party or proposition.”

To comply, political signs in zoned areas must be no larger than 32 square feet in area and cannot be set up more than 30 days prior to “the election or event to which the sign pertains.” They must be taken down within a week after the election or event takes place.

Because local absentee ballots are mailed out to voters on Oct. 9, the county planning department determined that the county’s campaign sign regulations will go into effect for this fall’s election on Sept. 9.

That is 30 days before absentee voters start to receive their ballots by mail, but not 30 days before Election Day. Regulated campaign signs can therefore stand for 57 days prior to Election Day.