It’s Election Day 2020. I’m swinging in my cage, pecking away at the keyboard as I anxiously await the results that you can’t read in this week’s paper. Why? Well, it’s our press schedule, you see. We hit the printer before the results get announced.
I’m no prognosticator, but I think it’s going to be a couple/few weeks before we know-know, you know? And in the meantime, I hope that I don’t have to deal with any more political hullabaloo from you complainers out there.
People angry about Trump trains and BLM protests (not the riots), which are basically the same exercise of First Amendment rights—yes, even when it messes up your trip down Highway 101 and it’s the opposing party’s show. People up in arms about some candidate they heard was dirty—some rumor fueled by the private, one-sided Facebook group they belong to. News flash: Most politicians aren’t clean. People stealing yard signs. Or suing over them.
Suing over yard signs. Yep. You read that right. And are you surprised?
Remember that story the Sun wrote earlier this year about the guy with the upside down American flag in his window and disapproving, complaining neighbors who tried to get Quail Meadows East—the manufactured home park they live in—to force him to take it down?
Well apparently that was only the first chapter in the story. His neighbors don’t like his choice of yard signs, either. Or it could be that this particular sign bearer wasn’t following park rules.
Either way, here we are, talking about political signs on Election Day.
Stephen Siemsen and his wife feel persecuted over their choice of yard signs supporting Democrats in a manufactured home park full of Republicans. After hearing about the flag dilemma and whiny neighbors, who were offended by the Siemsens’ flag display, I honestly don’t blame them. The Siemsens put up two yard signs 90 days before the election, somebody complained about the number of signs, and management requested a sign take-down.
I honestly don’t understand. It’s not like the signs were 18 feet tall or that the Seimsens’ lawn was covered in signs. It was just two signs: One for supporting Joe Biden for president and one for U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal.
But no! Their neighbors said: This atrocity cannot stand!
There seems to be some confusion as to what exactly the park’s sign rules are, whether it’s one per household or one per resident. In fact, management even sent out a survey asking residents what they thought the rules were because the wording was too vague!
The Siemsens allege that other park residents have more than one sign up, but those ones support conservative causes, so they haven’t been targeted with take-down notices. The couple sued the park over it, and asked for a restraining order that would allow them to keep the two signs up before the 2020 election. That restraining order was denied, so the Siemsens got creative, bundling multiple signs into one.
But Siemsen is taking the long view about the case—“If we win the case, that means in four years we can put two signs in our yard,” he said.
Oh goodie!
The canary is sick of the election. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 5-12, 2020.