Originally posted September 12, 2016.

Most Americans might agree that counting lawn signs supporting presidential contenders is not necessarily reliable in forecasting the outcome of a presidential election. Dick and I just returned from a five-day swing through heavily Democrat New England that produced a shocker in terms of candidate visibility, preference and enthusiasm.

We had anticipated a heavy dose of Hillary signs and scant few supporting Trump.

The result of our five-state (ex Maine) New England swing?

The first sign we spotted was in the privileged village of Dorset, VT. Score one for Hillary.

In Northfield, Mass, poster child for Obama’s “Shovel Ready” sidewalks-to-nowhere project, lawns had been blanketed with Obama signs in 2012. This time? Zero signs.

In scarily leftist Amherst, Mass, home of Amherst College and U. of Mass., we didn’t expect to see one Trump sign. And we didn’t. But the big surprise was that there was not one Hillary sign to be seen either.

Dick and I are no longer traveling on Harleys, but rather in a roadster, and we pretty much stayed on the familiar back roads of our motorcycling days. In the five states through which we traveled, you’d be hard pressed to even know a presidential election is less than two months away. Only a random scattering of signs the entire trip. Talk about unenthusiastic voters.

The final count: Trump-15 / Hillary-5.

2016 Race Suffers Enthusiasm Gap, Poll Shows