With the election only days away, signs of all shapes and sizes supporting candidates down the ballot can be found across Johnson County on neighborhood street corners and front lawns.
But the signs in front of one Center Grove area home stand out. Ronald Bober has made his own political signs since 2008, and he has been swapping out new signs every few weeks.
You’ve probably seen them if you drive on Fairview Road. He’s gone after the national media, Congress, the president, a presidential candidate and reminded you to register to vote.
His current sign promotes his presidential pick of choice, but no one is off limits if future actions raise his ire.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe initial target of his ire was President Barack Obama. His biggest complaint: the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, he said.
Protesting against Obama was what first motivated Bober to began creating his political yard signs, he said.
“I don’t like the stuff he is pulling,” Bober said.
Since then, other signs have criticized Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Congress and national media outlets. Some of his past signs also have been nonpartisan, including one encouraging people to register to vote.
This week, two signs on his lawn touted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and lambasted Republicans that don’t support their party’s nominee.
Raised as a Democrat, it was President Ronald Reagan who ended up converting Bober to conservatism, he said.
“I didn’t like him at first, but he grew on me because he said a lot of good stuff that I believe in,” Bober said.
At 75 years old, and having served two decades in the Navy, Bober said he thinks he’s earned the right to speak his mind.
His response to those who might disagree with his message: “If you don’t like it, don’t listen.”
But often the message from drivers along Fairview Road, near Peterman Road, where he has lived for 25 years, is of support, with thumbs-up, waves and honks.
And while Bober plans to vote for Trump on Tuesday, if the New York businessman becomes the 45th president, Bober said he will be more than willing to make signs against Trump as well if he doesn’t agree with his decisions.
Bober gets his ideas for his signs from what he sees on the news, Facebook and tips from friends, he said.
His wife, Eunice Bober, serves as a second opinion and proofreader.
“She keeps me under control,” he said.
That’s true some of the time, his wife said.
“He still can get himself in trouble,” Eunice Bober said.
To make his signs, he prints them out on pieces of card stock and glues them onto a plastic board before putting a clear polyester coating to protect it from the weather.
Bober started with 2-foot-by-3-foot signs, but after several people said they had trouble reading them he moved to 4-foot-by-4-foot signs instead, he said.
