Campaign signs are posted along Ringgold Road on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, in East Ridge, Tenn.The usual flood of presidential yard signs that occupies every square inch of available grass every four years is missing this year.
The 2-foot-tall, star-spangled signs emblazoned with the names of presidential candidates are noticeably absent in Tennessee this election, even if the candidates themselves are plastered over the TV and internet 24/7.
Explanations for the dearth of signs range from a rash of thefts to the fact that Tennessee just isn't a battleground state. But one thing is clear: No one is prioritizing the campaign staple.
"The last time we had huge numbers of signs was the last election with Bill Clinton," said Terry Lee, chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party.
In Lee's mind, reliance on yard signs has decreased over the last several elections as Tennessee becomes less and less of a battleground state. The most hotly contested states are subjected to a deluge of campaign material that makes Tennessee operations look like small change.
The money is better spent on signs in other states, but Lee said people tend to overvalue the importance of presidential yard signs in general, even in battleground states.
"Signs don't vote. They're for name recognition," he said. "This year you have very few people who have no idea who's running for president."
The same cannot be said for many local elections such as the election for Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District or election for Tennessee's 10th District in the state Senate, both of which are up for grabs.
Signs for races on the local level more than make up for those missing from the presidential campaigns, and Lee said they're likely more effective in those races anyway since they familiarize voters with relatively unknown candidates.
Tony Sanders, chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, agreed that it's been years since he's seen the region dotted by signs paid for by presidential candidates.
"The thing of it is, Tennessee's probably not really in play, and so that's why you don't see a lot of signage being put out. Everybody's expecting Trump to win Tennessee, so Hillary's not spending any money," he said.
On the state level, campaign offices reiterated what local officials said and drew a comparison to the large amounts of money spent selling candidates elsewhere in the nation.
"Neither campaign is really putting any money into buying signs in Tennessee," said Randall Rice, chairman of the Tennessee Democratic County Chairs Association.
Rice's group has handled sign distribution for the Clinton campaign, and with 15,000 signs spread from Memphis to Johnson City, he said they're down a few thousand from 2012. He shares Lee's skepticism about their effectiveness.
"I think they just create some visibility. I don't think they're going to persuade someone to vote one way or another," he said.
Republicans on the other hand have distributed more than 28,000 signs for Trump in Tennessee, and Robert Swope, Tennessee state director for the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign, said they can be hugely important.
"For the wee group of people that are left undecided, when they walk into the polling station, yard signs do make a difference. It's the last chance that we as a campaign have to influence you as an undecided voter," he said.
In Hamilton County, the local campaign offices have distributed about 1,000 yard signs each, but both sides also say many of those signs have been stolen or destroyed by bandits from the other side of the aisle.
"If the Hillary people would quit stealing them, you'd see a lot more of them," Swope said. He argued the petty larceny is one-sided and Trump supporters are the primary victims.
"I have yet to get one report that anybody is stealing Hillary signs, yet I can guarantee that well over half of our signs have been stolen," he said.
Lee pushed back against that and said plenty of signs for Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Melody Shekari and Khristy Wilkinson, have been going missing for months.
He said one campaign worker recently found more than 20 discarded Melody Shekari signs uprooted and discarded in a ditch, and a woman on Lookout Mountain has resorted to stockpiling Hillary Clinton signs because she knows they won't last long in her yard.
"However many signs we put up, half of them will be gone in 48 hours," he said.
The mass thefts have gotten the attention of political science experts, who have their own theories about the phenomenon.
"The reports of both candidates' signs being stolen out of people's yards is quite dramatic," said Dr. Amanda Wintersieck, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
She is also doubtful about the effectiveness of using signs to inspire voters and pointed to some data that showed they have little effect on numbers of votes.
"An increased number of yard signs does not increase at all the number of votes a candidate receives. We know that yard signs really are more just a feeling thermometer about how excited people are about their candidates," she said.
Underneath all of the controversy surrounding the humble yard sign, she said, is the reality that candidates used to hand out signs for free, but now voters have to pay upwards of $20 to announce their candidate choice to the neighborhood.
With Trump and Clinton's favorability numbers at a record low for two presidential nominees, legions of people may vote but won't shell out money for a sign.
"The only people who are putting up yard signs are people who are very excited for those candidates," she said.
For front lawns throughout the state, there aren't too many people who fit that bill this election.
Contact staff writer Emmett Gienapp at egienapp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731. Follow on Twitter @emmettgienapp.