This letter to the editor, by John Gostovich, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on August 29, 2024.

If in your neighborhood you’ve seen the sign “Vote like our democracy depends on it—because it does”, then you’ve seen a League of Women Voters (LWV) election sign paid for and put up by an LWV member.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization that works to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. To learn more about the LWV, go to www.lwv.org.

Sadly, one recent night, some “friends” of one of our teen neighbors stole our nonpartisan LWV sign urging people to vote, along with our sign for a partisan candidate for whom we support.

In response to our neighborhood query about our missing election signs, the mother of our teen neighbor returned them the following day.

While we appreciated getting our election signs back, we were especially disappointed that our nonpartisan LWV sign urging people to vote had been run over and damaged, not just pulled up.

Teach your children, by your example and words, to behave better than this toward our neighborhoods and our democracy. 

Election signs are a form of protected free speech and are integral to our democratic process. All of us have rights to display our election signs without intimidation or interference.

Besides harming both our neighborhoods and our democracy, vandalizing and/or stealing other people’s election signs is more than “shenanigans” in Wisconsin state law. Such behavior may be either a Class A misdemeanor or a Class I felony, and is punishable by up to a $10,000 fine or up to nine months jail time, under Wis. Stat. 943.01(1), 943.20(1) and (3), and 939.51.

Regardless of your political party and candidate preferences, respect the private property of your neighbors, and engage in civil discourse, not vandalism and theft.

If you filched your neighbor’s election sign, apologize to them. Make a contribution to the nonpartisan League of Women Voters to help protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. And “Vote like our democracy depends on