Campaign signs outside the 13th Judicial District building on Idalia Rd.(Michaela Helean/Observer)

 

Every election cycle candidates present their views and wait for the deciding day. They knock on doors, give speeches, have debates and forums and put out their campaign signs for added visibility.

Lately, those campaign signs have been stolen from a few candidates.

“My signs haven been removed by people without authority. Signs do not vote but they do help with name recognition. It’s a shame that some people think it is necessary to illegally remove them,” said Democratic candidate for district 44 state representative Kathleen Cates.

Sometimes political signs are removed by city officials because of a code violation. Click here for the sign code in Rio Rancho.

However, these candidates claim that they followed every rule.

Campaign sign for Michelle Sandoval, Democratic candidate for District 57 state represenatative.(Michaela Helean)

“I followed every rule but several of my signs are gone. I talked to officials and they said they didn’t take any of them,” Democratic candidate for district 57 state representative Michelle Sandoval said.

Sandoval said she is missing four or five of her signs. A couple of them were placed along Paseo del Volcan and Unser Blvd.

In the past signs that are particularly flimsy tend to blow away at the slightest breeze.

Both Sandoval and Cates have fairly sturdy signs.

It’s not necessarily a new thing. Campaign signs are stolen all the time nationwide.

On October 17 officials in Pennsylvania found 100 political signs in a dumpster. There are also reports of defaced and vandalized signs. This happened during the 2020 election too with people removing presidential signs  in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.

Not much is being done here though about the signs as they are not of a significant value.

 

These are the candidates who reported the missing signs. If another candidate that is not included in the story is missing signs please email [email protected].