Day six: while having second thoughts can be bad

If you like a candidate enough to put a sign in your yard, you had better not change your mind.

Of if you do change your mind, simply remove the sign from your front yard and return it to whoever's name is on the front of it.

Do not, under any circumstances, get out a can of spray paint and circle the candidate's name and put a slash though it.

That's a good way to go to jail for a year and get a $1,000 fine.

That's what happened to Homedale man Tony Lopez.

He was a fan of Owyhee County sheriff candidate Daryl Crandal, who is being challenged by write-in candidate, and current sheriff, Gary Aman.

He switched his allegiances to Aman and switched his pro-Crandal sign to a custom-made anti-Crandal sign.

Two hours later, Crandal, two deputies and a reserve officer show up to tell him to take it down.

Now he faces a charge of misdemeanor malicious injury to property, because it turns out in local elections, the candidates are the owners of their campaign signs. Not the people who put them in their front yards on their own and later change their minds.

But front yard owners are allowed to make plywood signs with the words "No Crandal" and a circle and slash though it. That's apparently Lopez's response.

His hearing is set for Nov. 5, the day after the election. He faces a maximum punishment of a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Hopefully the judge can see how ironic it is the man is being charged for exercising his freedom of speech and expression while participating in the very fabric of a democratic society, a democratic election.