Other times, the authorities take the signs.
There are ordinances limiting where candidates can place campaign signs. When a sign is found in the public right of way, it can be pulled from the ground and confiscated by authorities. The Clark County Elections Office publishes information about where candidates can legally place campaign signs.
Luiz isn’t the only candidate to have his signs tampered with over the weekend.
Jim Mains, a political consultant for Vancouver City Council candidate Alishia Topper, had a brush with vandals early Sunday morning when he saw two young men destroying signs belonging to Topper and Vancouver City Councilor Jeanne Stewart.
Mains saw the men, whom he described as being between 18 and 22, pulling up and throwing Topper’s campaign signs near Benjamin Franklin Elementary School.
He’d followed the men to the school after hearing a disturbance near his home. He reported the incident to the police.
A total of eight signs were found damaged, he said.
Mains said he didn’t think there was always a political motive behind demolished signs. He attributed Sunday morning’s sign vandalism to bored kids looking to tear down any new, freestanding object that pops up in a neighborhood.
“I just think its crazy,” Mains said. “I always hear how the candidates like to blame the other side. But I really believe it’s usually just kids. They see something up and they want to get into mischief.”
But in the heat of a primary race against community activist Nathan Stokes and former police chief Tim Hopkin, Luiz wondered whether the sign thefts were politically motivated.
He noted that his signs were the only ones in town that were taken.
“Maybe someone is unhappy with what I’ve done (on council),” he said.
