Sacramento -- Today the California Voter Foundation launched its new edition of the California Online Voter Guide, a non-partisan web site packed with election information and designed to give voters the tools they need to make informed decisions on November 3rd. The guide features information covering Californiaâs statewide races and measures, as well as the stateâs 52 congressional and 100 legislative races. The guide, now in its fifth edition, can be found at:

http://www.calvoter.org

ãMany voters wonât settle for last-minute hit pieces and thirty-second sound bites,ä said Kim Alexander, President of the California Voter Foundation (CVF) and editor of the guide. ãWe build our voter guides for those Californians who truly want to make informed choices. Now, thanks to the Internet, they can -- and do,ä she added, noting that thousands of voters used CVFâs 1998 Primary guide, which logged more than a quarter of a million page retrievals during the Primary election season.

CVFâs new voter guide is bigger and better than ever. It includes more than 300 web pages and over 200 links to California campaign web sites. The site features contact information for all California state and federal campaigns, easy-to-read summaries of the twelve state ballot measures, and ãFollow the Moneyä, a new feature offering campaign finance data summaries that list the top ten contributors to every statewide campaign, plus much more.

In addition, CVF, in partnership with Compaqâs Corporate Research Labs in Palo Alto, will soon offer a California Campaign Finance Database on the Internet. The database is made possible thanks to the Online Disclosure Act of 1997, passed last year by the California Legislature, which requires all statewide candidates and ballot measure campaigns that raise or spend $100,000 or more to file their disclosure reports on computer disk as well as paper.

Californiaâs November ballot includes high-profile contests for Governor and U.S. Senate as well as several big-money initiatives dealing with Indian gaming, electric deregulation and tobacco taxes. ãUsing our voter guide, voters can easily follow the money and discover whoâs funding these candidates and measures,ä Alexander said. CVFâs online contributions are part of the organizationâs continuing efforts to shed ãdigital sunlightä and insure the public has immediate Internet access to campaign finance data.

The California Online Voter Guide is a free web site that features simple graphics and includes no paid advertisements, ensuring visitors can easily navigate through the site and quickly find what they need.

ãPeople are busy, and donât have the time to find all the information needed to make informed, confident choices,ä Alexander said. ãOur web site pulls together a wide variety of information and offers it up in one place accessible 24 hours a day on the Internet. Voters can rely on CVFâs California Online Voter Guide to help them sort through the confusing and complex ballot issues and make sense of this yearâs election.ä

The California Online Voter Guide will be updated regularly throughout the General election season. CVF has produced the guide since 1994, and offers an archive of previous editions at the organizationâs web site as well. CVFâs voter education and Internet disclosure efforts are supported with contributions from the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, the Gerbode Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Columbia Foundation and the Piper Fund.

The California Voter Foundation is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization applying new technologies to provide the public with free, timely and convenient access to the information needed to participate in public life in a meaningful way. For more information, visit CVFâs web site at www.calvoter.org, email info@calvoter.org or call (916) 325-2120.

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