(NEVADA APPEAL NEWS SERVICE) " A Douglas County supporter of Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama said an Obama/Biden sign in the Sunridge subdivision along Highway 395 was defaced with a racial slur on Saturday.
Debra Chappell said she and other volunteers purchased signs independently of the campaign and found residents who would allow them to be placed on their back fences.
Over the past three weeks, she said, the signs were first covered up with McCain/Palin signs, then slashed, then defaced with the racial slur in red paint.
She said other signs in the area were also defaced with an obscenity.
Chappell said she reported those incidents to Douglas County Sheriff's Office, but a dispatcher indicated and the signs are still up, waiting to be photographed by deputies.
"This has moved from vandalism to a hate crime," she said. "We've had five others in various neighborhoods vandalized last night."
Douglas County Sheriff's deputy Eric Eisinger on Sunday said he could not locate any record of such a report being filed with his office.