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Political Signs Stolen From Front Yards

POSTED: Monday, October 13, 2008
UPDATED: 12:01 am EDT October 14, 2008

As Election Day nears, more and more voters are seeing their political signs pilfered right out of their front yards.

With John McCain and Barack Obama signs gracing yards on pretty much every street, partisanship seems to be becoming a problem. Twenty-two days before the presidential elections, both sides of the political aisle spoke out about a crime they said has become all-too common.

"We found that our Obama sign had been taken out of the ground -- kind of roughed up a little bit," said Jacksonville resident Sakenia Washington.

She said her Obama signs were just a few of the many ripped from front yards in her Mandarin neighborhood. Washington said things got even worse for she and her husband when her husband's car was keyed just under the Obama sticker while parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

"Of course we're supportive of Obama ourselves, but we don't harass anybody who's voting for McCain and we really think it's unfortunate. The election process shouldn't come to this," Washington said.

Republicans told Channel 4 the sign stealing has been happening on both sides. Campaign workers said they're fielding a lot of calls from people who say their McCain/Palin signs have been pilfered.

"I've been doing this type of thing since 1996. There has always been some type of actions going on with either signs disappearing for various reasons or being vandalized," said Vice-Chair for Duval County Republicans Gary Dickinson.

He said sometimes the city will remove signs that are illegally placed, but said others are swiped for more nefarious reasons.

"It's a shame that some people who take advantage of this to take actions to destroy other people's property or remove other people's property, and it's wrong," Dickinson said.

Voters on both sides said they are not surprised by sign snatching.

"Look at the commercials. What they say on the commercials is a lot worse than ripping up some signs," said one voter.

Dickinson suggested that people with signs in their yards remove them on Halloween night because not only could be they be a safety hazard for children walking through yards but they could be knocked over and removed.
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