THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 7, 1994 TAG: 9411050074
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
SO YOU'RE ALL READY to cast your vote Tuesday, but there's this question in the back of your mind, nagging: Just how did your congressman vote on trade to China?
If you've got a computer and a pipeline to the Internet, the answer - plus a load of other critical information about federal candidates - is on your desk thanks to Project Vote Smart.
The project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, has compiled a huge database on federal candidates and put it on the Internet for anyone to read or download.
``Our goal is to provide information to the voters free of charge and as much of it as they'd like,'' says Mike Krejci, Project Vote Smart's computer services director. ``It's no coincidence that we're on The Internet now, where the free flow of information is a way of life.''
When Project Vote Smart started four years ago as a telephone service, callers kept pestering operators to put the information on-line. By telephone, voters got maybe three or four minutes to ask questions before the line had to be freed for another call.
If you have an Internet connection, point your gopher to gopher.neu.edu, which will tap you into a computer at Northeastern University in Boston. Pick ``Project Vote Smart'' from the menus, and from there you can examine or download:
Candidates' resumes, personal background, education and experience.
Answers to a nonpartisan questionnaire about government - which most candidates have answered.
Details of campaign contributions, analyzed by industry group.
Voting records and ratings from lobbying groups. For example, for U.S. Rep. Owen Pickett, D-2nd District, you can find out his ratings from the Christian Coalition (42 out of 100), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (73), and the American Security Council (100).
If you have America Online, you can get to the Internet by choosing the Gopher section. If you don't have access to the Internet but have a modem, you can check out the project's computer bulletin board. Find out about the options, or ask questions about the candidates, by calling (800) 622-SMART.
In the future, you may be able to tap the database from local libraries. Project Vote Smart is getting help from an old friend of the voters, the League of Women Voters, and testing terminals in public libraries in San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Evanston, Ill.; and Columbus, Ohio. If all goes well, the project could be used nationwide for the 1996 elections, when Project Vote Smart hopes to expand to include information on state legislative races.
AFTER YOU'VE DONE THE HARD WORK OF DECIDING whom to vote for, you might be up for a little political relaxation on the Internet. It'll take a graphical Internet browser to do it - like Mosaic or Netscape.
Vice President Albert Gore has posted a collections of his favorite political cartoons - all spoofing him, of course. Point your browser to this World Wide Web address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/White_ House/EOP/html/Cartoon.html
This last option will require not just a web browser but sound support on your computer, but it might be the most fun of all. The Capitol Steps, a Washington, D.C. group that does biting and extremely funny musical political satires, now has its own World Wide Web site.
The address: http://pfm.het.brown.edu/people /mende/steps/index.html
You can not only get information about the Capitol Steps and their albums, you can download sound bites and play them if your computer has sound capability.
By the way, both Chuck Robb and Oliver North are represented among the latest Steps tunes - along with Marion Barry, Ted Kennedy, Dianne Feinstein. Isn't it nice to know that whoever wins Tuesday's election, Virginia will be providing national-caliber fodder for Washington's best wits? MEMO: If you have any ideas or comments for The Gateway, contact Rob Morris,
robm(AT)infi.net or call 446-2362. In Hampton Roads, access to the
Internet is offered through InfiNet. For details, see page A2.
by CNB