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Political activists are used to seeing campaign signs occasionally vanish from their yards.

But they're not used to having signs spray-painted with epithets, or having their cars keyed, their tires slashed, or being confronted by angry supporters of the other candidate.

That's the sort of thing happening this year, and both Democrats and Republicans say it's a sad testament to the heightened emotions surrounding this presidential campaign.

"This election has just taken a really nasty turn," said Shaun Kenney, of the Spotsylvania County Republican committee. "It's nastier this year."

That nastiness goes beyond sign theft, which happens in every election.

Delia Zisman, chairwoman of the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee and the 1st District Democratic Committee, said one of her members left a meeting to find that a new tire on her car, which had a Kerry bumper sticker, had been slashed so vehemently that the knife blade was broken off and still stuck inside her tire.

Zisman said another local Democrat, a veteran with a "Veterans for Kerry" sticker on his vehicle, was approached by a group of military men who ripped his sticker off the car.

Zisman and other Democrats blame inflammatory rhetoric from national Republicans for the vandalism.

"A lot of the animosity is coming from being named un-American or unpatriotic if you don't support the president," Zisman said.

Neither party encourages nor condones sign theft or vandalism.

"The sign theft and all that, that's not a Democrat thing, that's not a Republican thing, that's just dumb people stealing signs, and it should stop," Kenney said. "If you want to help a candidate, stick a sign in your yard. Don't tear down somebody else's sign. But it has gotten worse."

Kenney said Republicans, at least, almost budget for sign theft, ordering more signs than they need on the assumption that a certain number will vanish from lawns.

But losing signs to theft is an expensive proposition.

Last weekend, a vandal spray-painted a vulgarity across a large 4-by-8-foot Kerry/Edwards sign in Caroline County. Local Democrats had to order a new one, but for now, the defaced sign is still in place.