The committee adopted a first substitute to House Bill 292, clarifying that attaching or affixing an object — including another political sign — to a political sign, when that object obscures or changes the original message, is prohibited and subject to existing criminal penalties.

Representative Tusher, sponsor of the bill, said the change responds to incidents where one political sign was altered by affixing another sign or sticker that changed the message. “If someone attaches another political sign to a sign and it changes or misrepresents the intent of the sign, that should be included,” Tusher said while explaining the substitute.

The substitute narrows enforcement to conduct where the object is attached or fixed to the sign; signs placed adjacent to each other or with arrows are not criminalized under the substitute so long as they are not affixed. Sponsor and committee members emphasized the intent was to prevent deceptive alteration of signage rather than to penalize ordinary political speech.

Municipalities, county clerks and UDOT representatives told the committee they had worked with the sponsor on language and appreciated clarifications that allow state or municipal workers to remove or remedy safety hazards and that allow ordinary citizens to remove an object attached to their property sign. Laith Elder of the Utah Department of Transportation told the committee UDOT’s practice is to remove signs that create safety hazards and that the agency sought assurance employees would not be criminally exposed when removing hazardous signs.

Public commenters included candidates and clerks who said sign tampering is a recurring problem; county clerk Ricky Hatch said clerks get many calls but enforcement often falls to municipalities. The committee adopted the first substitute and then voted to pass HB 292 out of committee with a favorable recommendation.