Someone sprayed racist graffiti on provincial election signs in North Preston, one of Nova Scotia's oldest black communities.

The Nazi imagery and language were painted on signs for PC candidate Irvine Carvery, Liberal Keith Colwell and New Democrat Shelley Fashan. All are candidates in the riding of Preston-Dartmouth.

Carvery and Fashan are African-Nova Scotian.

An upset local posted photos of it to Facebook on Tuesday, which is election day in Nova Scotia. The graffiti includes a monkey, a swastika, the Nazi salute "Sieg Heil" and 1488, which is a term used by white supremacists.

The election signs sit under a faded board that once celebrated North Preston as "Canada's largest black community."

"You don't know who did this, so you can't address the culprit. It's vandalism," Fashan said. "It does have racial overtones. That's just ignorance; that's just people being hateful and ignorant. It's not going to deter what I am doing. It shouldn't deter anybody."

Colwell agreed and had his sign taken down within hours.

"It is absolutely disgraceful, people doing that kind of vandalism," he said. "It's troubling. It wouldn't matter where it is. It's not acceptable."

Carvery said he was "deeply disturbed" by the graffiti.

"It's particularly appalling that this appeared in North Preston, a historic black community. I have canvassed from one end of Preston-Dartmouth to the other and all of the people I met were decent, polite people," he said.