Dublin Students are Disappointed - Local Political Campaign Violations

Hi everyone!

We are a local group of students from Dublin who wanted to research the dynamics of political campaigns in our community in this election cycle for a project.

The aims of our research project were to identify the key strategies that candidates and campaign groups use to connect with voters and understand the public’s (especially the youth's) role in local elections.

However, we were met with an unexpected and disappointing reality: many candidates and advocacy groups are placing campaign signs illegally around Dublin, disregarding city regulations.

While initially focusing on campaign strategies and voter engagement efforts, we couldn’t ignore the evidence of signs popping up in unauthorized locations where political signage is clearly prohibited. From our research, according to Dublin law, campaign signs MUST, "have permission of [the] property owner (cannot be placed on City property)."

Our findings indicate that many of these signs belong to prominent community leaders and local political figures, people who we expect to act with integrity and uphold the very laws they aim to govern.

This is disappointing to us, as students and young people with a genuine interest in civic responsibility. This experience discourages us from wanting to engage in the political process and civic life. We entered this project excited to learn from local leaders, to see firsthand how campaigns operate, and to gain a better understanding of public service. Instead, witnessing these behaviors — from candidates who should be role models — has left us disillusioned. As young people striving to understand the principles of integrity and transparency in public service, seeing these tactics in action has left us questioning the ethical standards of our role models.

We don’t want to see candidates and campaigns who disregard the rules elected to represent us and affect our daily lives. As students and future voters, we are looking for integrity, respect, and accountability — values that are essential for creating trust within our community.

When candidates and groups ignore campaign regulations by placing signs illegally, they are essentially prioritizing their own visibility over respecting our shared spaces and public standards. This behavior not only violates our city’s rules but also sends the message that bending the law is acceptable if it helps win an election.

We were most concerned by a certain campaign, of which we saw most of the illegal signage all around Dublin (pictures attached).

Again, we are hoping to spread this message and bring awareness to something that has extremely disappointed us. As students, we also want to have a voice and help bring awareness to what is wrong. Oftentimes, we are overlooked and our perspectives are dismissed, even though these issues affect our future as much as anyone else’s.

We believe that by speaking up, we can encourage our community to hold leaders to higher standards and remind everyone that integrity matters. We urge voters to consider these actions and think critically about the kind of leaders we need.

Since we are the future generation of leaders, how can we build a better community if today’s leaders set an example that disregards rules and integrity? How are we supposed to learn to value what is right over wrong? How can we be expected to vote and be encouraged to participate in government if we see dishonest acts like this? Most importantly, if our voices are ignored now, how can we trust they’ll matter in the future?

Please help us raise awareness by sharing our message, talking to others, and asking questions about the integrity of our local campaigns, especially the ones highlighted in this post. The future of our community belongs to all of us, and together, we can make a difference by insisting on higher standards.

Let’s ensure that our leaders — present and future — respect the voices of young people and uphold the values we all believe in.

Thank you so much for listening to us and we hope that our words provide hope for the future.

Sincerely,
Group of Concerned & Disappointed High School Dublin Students