Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

You know it’s election season when campaign signs start sprouting on yards.

It’s also easy to tell it’s election season when reports start showing up in police blotters about campaign signs being stolen or vandalized. I saw what may be the first such complaint of the fall when picking up reports this morning at Monroe Police Department – two presidential campaign signs vandalized on at a home on Godfroy St.

It’s hard not to take those vandalism incidents personally.

I remember serving as campaign manager in college when a friend of mine was running for a residence hall government post. We didn’t swarm the dorm with paper fliers, we just posted a few in very deliberate locations.

My friend was irate when she saw some of her signs had been vandalized.

We never found out who did that. It’s not like my friend had any enemies in the dorm.

The culprits were either people who just felt like being malicious, or who supported the other candidates.

My friend tied for the office she sought in the first election, and lost in the runoff.

But the story of what happened in my dorm is pretty applicable to what happens in the real world.

Some people are just malicious and they’re going to wreck or steal whatever happens to be in the targeted yard or neighborhood.

Some people do it because they support the other candidates.

And election sign vandalism and theft really does happen every year.

Try not to take it personally.