BRISTOL, Conn — With a little over a week to go until election day, people are starting to feel election fatigue.
And neighbors are going to new lows—stealing and defacing political signs they don’t agree with in towns across the state.
“It’s visual,” says Laura Minor. “It’s a reminder. I know a lot of people who have come by and whether they agree or disagree with my signs, it reminds them, oh yeah, I better get registered.”
But once again, political signs serve as a reminder that we are not all voting for the same team.
And some will do anything to silence others.
“For a grown person to do that let’s remember that’s stealing,” says Morris Patton, Chairman is the Bristol Democratic Town Committee. “That’s walking on someone’s property without their permission. It’s not okay.”
One sign supporting the Bristol Police Department, Biden, and Harris, and Black Lives Matter was thrown into a Brook. Another sign on Burlington Avenue is taped back up.
It may be the one bipartisan issue in this election. Voters say—don’t mess with my signs, or we will put them back up in more creative and more vocal ways.
Laura Minor’s Biden/Harris sign was stolen once.
It is now back on her lawn with an additional message.
“That if you steal this sign I will make a donation to Biden, so you’ll be supporting Biden,” says Minor.
Others take their signage to new heights. A sign on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Camp Street was defaced—a new sign now hangs in the trees. Another banner on French Street hangs where no one has touched them, yet.
“Signs don’t vote, people do,” says Patton. “So, while it’s an annoyance, it should just motivate you, even more, to get out there on election day.”
Bristol Republican Town Committee Chairman Jeff Caggiano echoed Patton’s statement, adding “It is completely abhorrent what has occurred this year with political signs.
He sent us a video of a woman destroying a trump sign on private property.
“I don’t understand why you would do that. This is America. We all have our right to our own opinion. Ignore my signs, if you don’t like them, but destruction is awful,” says Minor.