2026-09-10 · Indiana · Compliance

What happened. Nothing new — and that is the point. Indiana's political-sign statute has been on the books since 2010, the Attorney General's office wrote to Indiana associations about it in 2024, and the protected window for the November 2026 general election opens in the first days of October. Associations that enforce a blanket sign ban are about to enforce it into a statute that forbids exactly that.

What the statute says

IC 32-21-13-4 is short and does not leave much room:

“a homeowners association may not adopt or enforce a rule that prohibits a member … from displaying a sign on the member's property during the period: (1) beginning thirty (30) days before; and (2) ending five (5) days after; the date of the election…”

With the general election on 3 November 2026, the protected period runs from approximately 4 October 2026 through 8 November 2026. The exact dates turn on each association's own election calendar, including any municipal or special elections that carry their own windows.

What an association may still do

The statute preserves real authority, and IC 32-21-13-5 is where it lives. An association may restrict:

• Size — the Attorney General's letter describes this as rules restricting “the size of a sign to be no larger than a typical election sign.”
• Number of signs.
• Placement — but with a hard floor. A restriction “may not prohibit the display of a sign: (A) in a window on the homeowner's property; or (B) on the ground that is part of the homeowner's property.”

So: a rule limiting each lot to one sign of ordinary yard-sign dimensions is defensible. A rule confining signs to a location the owner does not control, or barring them from the yard and the window both, is not.

The candidate-access provision almost nobody knows about

IC 32-21-13-7 reaches beyond signage. As the Attorney General's letter puts it:

“A homeowners association may not adopt or enforce a rule or covenant that prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, a candidate, an individual who holds an elected office or their spouse, or a volunteer worker of a candidate or individual who holds an elected office from entering onto HOA property for purposes of conducting political activity.”

That is a canvassing-access rule, and it is the provision most likely to be breached by a gated Indiana community operating a standing no-solicitation policy at the entrance.¹

1. Ind. Att'y Gen. Todd Rokita, letter to Indiana homeowners associations and management companies re political signage (Oct. 4, 2024) ↩
2. Ind. Code § 32-21-13 — Display of political signs (chapter text) ↩
3. Indiana Attorney General, Homeowner Protection Unit — complaint intake ↩