In Maine, a state that Hillary Clinton won by a bare 22,000 votes in 2016, Trump supporters have been finding dog poop in their mailboxes, allegedly courtesy of a middle-aged woman riding a bicycle.
Alyshia Canwell, a patrol officer with Hampden Public Safety, told WGME, “She has been picking up dog feces and putting it in mailboxes, specifically of people who have Trump signs outside,” adding, “She has been also defacing Trump signs, writing comments on the signs.”
On Tuesday, the Hampden Police Department posted a photo of the woman on Facebook, writing that they were “attempting to identify this person. She was seen in the area of Constitution Ave around noon on Sunday 9/13 and Monday 9/14. If you recognize her please give us a call at 207-862-4000.”
Hampden Police Department officer Monic Christian stated, “There are a number of charges that could potentially happen. I mean, there’s trespass. Under federal law you are not supposed to tamper with anyone’s mailbox. Just let people display whatever is right and respect that.”
Maine Trump supporters are not the only Trump supporters who have been allegedly been targeted recently; in August, John A. Oliveira, a member of the New Bedford School Committee and a U.S. Navy veteran, erected an electric fence on his property; he said several of his campaign signs supporting President Donald Trump’s reelection were stolen from his yard. He told MassLive, “It’s strictly about protecting my freedom of speech,” adding, “It was preventing my right to freedom of speech and my personal properties right … Even if you get a security camera, that’s not going to do anything. The electric fence, it sends a message.”
“The fence is about three feet high in a triangular shape with yellow and black safety wire and three small signs that say, ‘Caution Electric Fence,’ in English, Spanish and French, he said. It is solar powered and has a current going through it,” USA Today reported, adding, “Oliveira said he started displaying the Trump sign on his lawn around the end of May and about two months later they began to disappear. The thieves stole them in broad daylight. He said they were on his lawn in the mornings when he left and when he returned in the afternoon they were gone.”
The last time a Republican presidential candidate won the state of Maine was 1988, when George H. W. Bush won the state by 63,000 votes. In 2016, Maine split its electoral votes; Hillary Clinton won three electoral votes, and Trump got one electoral vote from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Trump lost the state by 22,000 votes, the closest any Republican presidential candidate has come to winning the popular Maine vote since George H. W. Bush.
In August, President Trump told Fox News that he would do well in Maine, arguing, “Look at Maine. President Obama shut down 5,000 square miles, you know what 5,000 square miles of fishing and lobster fishing in Maine. I should win the state of Maine. What I did for them — I should win, but I don’t know if I will. Should win half of it.”