THE level of sign vandalism and theft during the federal election campaign has left seasoned politician Andrew Gee shocked.
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He and other candidates have had numerous campaign signs vandalised or seemingly stolen in recent weeks.
Mr Gee said he has "lost hundreds of posters during this campaign", but it's been the vandalism that has been most disappointing.
"In any campaign you always expect a certain amount of losses, but it's the violence of some of the attacks on posters on my old ute, on our trailers and private property which has disturbed me a bit," he said.
"Slashing candidate's posters with knives is pretty shocking. I haven't experienced that in previous election campaigns."
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He would rather see people cast their votes for their preferred candidate than damage or steal property.
"It's hard to know who is behind it, and I'm not looking to blame any one person or party, although over the weekend I had a poster on private property slashed and the name of another party was spray painted on it," he said.
"I think whoever is doing it just needs to keep things in perspective. It's an election and it will be over in two weeks and life will go on. We're lucky we get to vote in Australia. Let's celebrate that."
Other candidates have also expressed their frustration over signage in recent weeks.
Stacey Whittaker, the candidate for One Nation, has had numerous signs vanish from around the electorate, while others have been vandalised with a black marker.
Independent Kate Hook's campaign has also been targeted.
Dr Jim Blackwood, a volunteer for her campaign, has reported over a dozen of her corflute signs going missing.
"There are obviously people out there who feel threatened by the idea of having truly independent candidate and member for Calare something that represents the interests of the electorate, and not just some outside political interest and money," he said.