Every election season candidates lose a portion of their campaign signs and that’s just the way it is, according to police and campaign sign manufacturers.
This is something that happens to all candidates in all areas, according to Art Boruck of Boruck Printing and Silk Screening in Seattle, who manufactures many of the local candidates’ campaign signs.
“Most of (the candidates) know that – or they should if they don’t,” Boruck said. “Candidates usually like to blame the other candidates for stealing them, but usually it’s a kid or the weather that has done something with the signs.”
Boruck, who has almost 35 years experience with campaign signs said currently, like every year, a couple of weeks before the election he is busy getting reorders done for candidates who have lost a portion of their signs one way or another.
Legally, Shoreline and Lake Forest Park deal with stolen campaign signs as they would any other theft.
Shoreline Police Sergeant Jim Knauss said if the amount of property taken is $250 or less, it is treated as a misdemeanor and above that amount would be treated as a felony.
Knauss said if they could find out who was stealing the signs, if that is what is making them disappear, then they would pursue charges accordingly.
“It’s something we take seriously,” Knauss said. “Each stolen sign is treated as an individual misdemeanor and if we have a witness or a suspect, we treat it seriously.”
Knauss said it’s something that happens every year. Especially about this time.
“There is some amount of sign vandalism on Halloween, and often it’s kids,” Knauss said. “But when there’s actual stealing of signs it’s usually politically motivated.
“Usually the campaign people will complain they are missing a lot of signs, and sometimes they’re friends of the candidate that will have seen something suspicious and will report it. We can talk to witnesses and eventually talk with the suspect and try to recover the signs,” he said.
Lake Forest Park officials said there has not been any complaints of signs being lost or stolen in Lake Forest Park this year.
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