TERRE HAUTE – Libertarian Party candidates Donald Rainwater and K. Richard Fitzlaff’s signs were discovered to have been taken from a Terre Haute vote center, by the IBEW Local union leader, in the days leading up to the election.
At polling places throughout Indiana, candidates place their signs to remind voters of their choices, and Hoosiers deserve to know all of the choices on their ballot.
Stealing candidates’ signs – especially from a polling place – is not just a crime, it’s election interference.
“One of our most important freedoms is the right to free speech, and political speech is the highest and most important expression of that right,” Libertarian Party chair Evan McMahon said.
Fitzlaff, who is running for Congress and noticed the missing signs, deployed trail cameras to catch the culprit, who was Identified as IBEW Local 725 leader Jim Fellows.
Fitzlaff contacted the Vigo County Sheriff’s office to report the theft and press charges.
Fellows admitted to taking the signs, but said he had received permission from the Vigo County Clerk to remove any signs he wanted, and also promised to return the signs to Fitzlaff and Rainwater.
While the IBEW union hall is claiming the signs being taken was in bounds because it was three days before the union hall opened as a vote center, signs for other parties’ candidates were displayed outside the hall. The Vigo County clerk’s office had included the union hall as a voting location in available publications.
When the IBEW or any other organization contracts as a vote center, they become an agent of the county or the state. By doing so, they forfeit the right to engage in electioneering – their partisan candidate preference during the election period – which begins 60 days before the election.
“When they start engaging and allowing signs for any candidate as a declared vote center, they must allow them for everyone, or they are electioneering while acting as an agent of the county or the state,” McMahon said. “Once you sign that contract, there are standards you have to abide by, and one of those is to not engage in electioneering during the election window.”
As private property, the Vigo County IBEW union hall may choose to not allow political signs or campaigning on their property, but if they do allow it, they have to allow them for all candidates.
“A citizen who sees their county publish a list of voting locations, then sees signs for a candidate or a cause at that location, could infer government support or they could infer that organization is hostile to anyone of differing views or opinions,” McMahon said. “Polling places should be free of partisanship. All candidates, parties and causes should be able to engage voters within state law.”
This has become a recurring problem. In Sheridan, someone was arrested for stealing multiple yard signs, and multiple parties’ candidates have reported sign theft in Johnson County.
Election sign theft is a crime – both for theft, for criminal conversion, but it is also election interference, by depriving citizens of expressing their rights to free expression. It is especially so at a polling place, where the property owner – by contracting with the county to become a vote center – cannot selectively allow some candidates to post signs and distribute materials, but disallow others from doing the same.
“Since the IBEW union hall is allowing signs from other political parties and candidates, they forfeit the right to restrict signs and campaigning by other political parties and candidates on their property. It’s all or nothing,” McMahon said. “I would go so far as to say this isn’t just theft or conversion, but also could be election interference.”
Election signs are an important tool for Libertarian Party candidates to be able to gain name recognition and present themselves to voters as options on their ballots. Theft of their signs silences their voices. If you’re afraid of voters knowing of a “better” choice, either run better candidates or use your own resources to produce your own signs and materials.
Let the marketplace of ideas sort out the ideas before elections without resorting to crime to attempt to manipulate them.
“Libertarian candidates can ill afford to continue to use their limited resources to replace signs stolen by supporters of their political opponents,” McMahon said.
We encourage anyone who witnesses or knows of election sign theft – no matter the party affiliation of the signs being stolen – to immediately contact local law enforcement. Free speech and fair elections are two bedrocks of the democratic system, and they must be protected at all costs.