This note describes a Cucumber step definition that lets you test whether or not a CSS selector is present on the site:

Then I should see an element "#sign_in"
But I should not see an element "#sign_out"

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Here is the step definition for Capybara:

Then /^I should (not )?see an element "([^"]*)"$/ do |negate, selector|
  expectation = negate ? :should_not : :should
  page.send(expectation, have_css(selector))
end

Here is the step definition for Webrat:

Then /^I should (not )?see an element "([^"]*)"$/ do |negate, selector|
  expectation = negate ? :should_not : :should
  response.send(expectation, have_tag(selector))
end