The foliage may have peaked and fallen over much of Maine, but there’s a new, synthetic source of color on the landscape.

Days away from the Nov. 5 election, state and local campaigns have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to design, print and place yard signs, according to campaign finance data submitted to the state ethics commission. It’s a time-honored campaign-season tradition, one that leaves street corners and rural highways shimmering like kaleidoscopes.

Dozens of signs line the edge of Preble Street near Back Cove in Portland, as they do countless other Maine streets. But even as joggers and dogwalkers prowled the sidewalks, and cars whizzed down the street one afternoon this week, the signs didn’t seem to grab much attention.

Billie Roy, 71, a Portland resident for about 50 years, said she doesn’t even look at political signs these days.

“It’s a waste. It’s an eyesore,” Roy said, gesturing to the line of mixed messages from a parking lot across the street. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Some campaign experts agree.

Broadly speaking, campaign signs tend to make little difference when it comes to driving turnout or convincing undecided voters, said Chris Potholm, professor emeritus at Bowdoin College and author of “How Maine Decides: An Insider’s Guide to How Ballot Measures Are Won and Lost.”

“Nobody ever changes their mind by seeing a sign,” Potholm said.

One 2015 report found that signs can give campaigns a slight boost, but by no more than a few percentage points.

Compared with other forms of advertising, campaign signs “mostly tend to serve the people that put them out” said Scott Minkoff, a political scientist and co-author of “Politics on Display: Yard Signs and the Politicization of Social Spaces.”

Minkoff said voters tend to put up yard signs for two primary reasons: to motivate others to vote for their candidate, and as a means of personal expression.

“It’s like a public display of politics, which is not something that we really get to do in a lot of areas,” Minkoff said. “Everybody is grasping for ways to feel like they have a little bit of say.”

BUT WHY ALL TOGETHER?

Campaign signs often end up clustered in a few locations, Minkoff said. In their book, Minkoff and co-authors Todd Makse and Anand Sokhey reviewed geographic, survey and election data to explore why voters feel compelled to put up signs.

“Signs beget more signs. And we saw this very consistently,” Minkoff said. “Areas with signs tended to produce more signs coming up, and areas without signs were less likely to add some.”

Potholm described a sort of arms race that can take place between campaigns: Even though yard signs may not be effective on their own, supporters – and, sometimes, campaign staff – often notice when they are missing from the landscape or seem to be outnumbered by the opposition’s.

“You have to have them, even though they don’t deliver very much,” Potholm said. “If you do get rid of them, because they don’t really do anything, then people are constantly bugging you: ‘Where are our signs?’ ”

But Potholm said signs can serve campaigns beyond simply attempting to convert voters. He argued that the acts of distributing and placing signs can help energize supporters and keep up momentum during a lengthy campaign.

Potholm said that while signs along public roads are generally a poor indication of public support – partly because campaigns can hire people to place them – yard signs on private property are usually a slightly better metric: “If somebody puts a sign in their front yard, that’s a guaranteed vote,” he said.

In smaller races, yard signs can be an effective way to get a new candidate’s name out, Potholm said. But they tend to have limited results for larger and more established campaigns.

Standing near the edge of Back Cove, lifelong Portland resident Steve McGrath, 69, said he hardly ever looks at campaign signs for state and national elections, but he said they have been helpful in local races like City Council and school board.

“I might not be that familiar with them, and so I might be swayed by a sign that I saw,” McGrath said. “Like, ‘Oh I recognize that name, I’ve seen the sign.’ ”

CUTTING THROUGH THE NOISE

Pat Eltman, a longtime field organizer for Democratic campaigns, said it can be difficult to make any impact with a sign when street corners are covered with them.

“If you ride around South Portland right now, all these public ways, it’s crazy,” Eltman said.

But Eltman said she tends to notice – and recall – humorous or otherwise nontraditional yard signs more quickly than classic designs. She noted signs proclaiming “Cats for Harris” and making puns about Harris/Walz and waltz, “like the dance.”

“Some of them are really funny,” Eltman said.

North of Portland, Senate candidate Kenny Cianchette has leaned into novelty with his latest batch of yard signs, using the motto “Kenny for Senny.”

His campaign has placed nearly a dozen of the rhyming signs throughout Senate District 26, which covers parts of Casco, Raymond, Frye Island, Windham and part of Westbrook – and he said they seem to be paying off.

“We put (the first sign) out there … and all of the sudden, I started getting calls,” Cianchette said in an interview.

The signs have gotten shoutouts on social media. And Cianchette said when he knocks on voters’ doors, some reply, “You’re Kenny for Senny!”

In Portland, handpainted signs sit next to their professionally printed cousins in an array of color schemes.

Some are made of plywood and, in the case of school board candidate John Rousseau, shaped like giant apples.

Whether any of that translates to better turnout this year remains to be seen.

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