“Yard signs don’t vote,” goes an old political axiom. They also don’t usually draw much attention from dog walkers and bike riders who pass by.
But a 3-feet-by-4-feet sign bolted to two sturdy four-by-four posts in Ryan Matthes’ front yard at the corner of Schurz and Lakeland avenues on Madison’s east side has lots of people talking, which is just what he was going for when he put it up.
“Democracy needs your help,” reads a line across the top in Helvetica, while “Take action now!” appears below that in a handwritten font. Alongside QR codes directing people to websites for the League of Women Voters of Dane County, Vote Save America and Kamala Harris’ campaign website are two sets of changing numbers. “Current odds Trump wins WI” sits above “Days remaining until Nov. 5.”
There’s also the unmistakable profile of Donald Trump’s head wearing a crown in the corner with a red X over it alongside this admonition: “It’s time to act! No dictators!” The design is clean and eye-catching.
Matthes checks the poll aggregation site fivethirtyeight.com for updated odds each morning and flips the numbers in the dark, before he heads to the gym.
“People are watching it like a score, almost,” he says. “They want to see Trump’s odds go down and when they go up, I’ll hear a comment from a neighbor or someone passing: ‘Oh, that’s not the right direction.’ And I’m glad to have this conversation. I’m glad people are openly saying, ‘Geez, we’re gonna have to do something.’ Yeah! And here’s a sign that says how and what to do!”
Matthes, a 38-year-old IT consultant, didn’t closely follow politics before Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. He believes apathy had a lot to do with Trump’s victory. “I’ve been dumbfounded ever since.”
His concern now is less about policy or party talking points and more about how Trump has steered the Republican Party away from governing.
“When people talk about American democracy, I feel like they’re talking about consensus and letting the best ideas rise to the top,” he says. “I don’t see that happening. Half our government, half of the two parties, isn’t functioning. Something’s not working. A big reason I’m so anti-Trump is that I really would just like things to go back to two functioning parties.”
His decision to design and build the sign came after the June 27 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. A few days later, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Trump v. United States, ruling that there’s a presumption of immunity for presidents’ official acts in office. Specifically, the court held that Trump is immune from federal prosecution over his efforts to undo his 2020 loss to Biden.
“Not being held to the same rule of law as everyone else, I don’t even want to say I was concerned,” Matthes says. “I think I want to say that scared me.”
Matthes lives in Ward 19, which consistently ranks at or near the top for voter turnout in the city. In 2020, nearly 90% of registered voters in the ward cast ballots with Biden collecting 85% of the vote. The yards around Matthes’ house show off a wide variety of signs urging people to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Some are creative alterations of Biden signs while others ridicule Trump.
“We’re pretty dark blue. We’re pretty high voter turnout,” he says. “So I didn’t want a sign that said, ‘Go vote.’ We’re all going to do that. I wanted a sign that said, ‘Hey, we gotta do more this time’ and give evidence of why we have to do more and also ideas of how to do more and where to start.”
Along with getting neighborhood pedestrians to stop and think and talk, Matthes hopes his sign provides an example of how people can get a little more involved, step outside what he calls the “template” for democratic participation.
“First off, voting is great. Go vote, 100%. I mean, you don’t have to do more than that,” he says. “And if you want to do more, there are all these suggested activities that you can do like phone banking and text banking, canvassing. But those are activities that are like templates for you to get started. That’s not where it needs to stop.
“One thing I’ve kind of learned from this is that you can do something that’s original, too. You should find your thing. We’ve only got about a month to go and we live in a state and especially a city that is incredibly impactful to this election. So now is the time to find your thing and take action.”
385,546: Number of registered voters in Dane County, Sept. 1, 2024
371,014: Number of registered voters in Dane County, Sept. 1, 2020
7,629: Number of absentee ballots returned from Dane County voters as of Sept. 30
