PRESS RELEASE FOR DISTRIBUTION 10/8/2001

CONTACT:
Trudell Een, director@smartvoter.org
408-323-9611

For many years the League of Women Voters has been passionately committed to campaign finance reform. This commitment often takes the form of action in favor of regulatory legislation or ballot measures, but sometimes it has simply involved 'leveling the playing field' so that candidates without great wealth can mount effective campaigns for public office.

Smart Voter, an on-line project of the League of Women Voters of California, offers free space on the Internet to candidates at all levels of government. Candidate information is then made easily available to voters who access it based on their home addresses. This service is especially beneficial during local and school board elections, which rarely receive the press coverage given to national and statewide contests.

Voters throughout California will be going to the polls on November 6, 2001, and increasing numbers of them will turn to Smart Voter for the information which will help them make decisions. In Los Angeles County alone, 659 candidates are running for local, school district, and 'special' offices with jurisdiction over public services such as water, irrigation, libraries, parks and recreation..

Candidate and ballot issue information is archived at for 16 election dates going back to November 1997. Judy Davis, chair of the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund says, "smartvoter.org will continue to grow in its importance as the place to go for political research, because no other site covers local elections in this depth."

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that works to encourage participation of citizens in government and to increase understanding of major public policy issues.