A new Web site unveiled Tuesday will help voters check their registration status and find out what legislative district they?re in, where to vote and even how to drive there.
The site, produced by the National Center for the Study of Elections at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, will also provide the public lots of information about candidates, including biographies, issues, photos and a ton of searchable data on campaign contributions and spending.
The site, mdelections.umbc.edu, was funded by a $259,000 grant from the state Board of Elections, which supplies much of the basic data, including the campaign finance reports that were due to be filed electronically on Tuesday.
“We can do some things as a university that a state bureaucracy can?t do,” said Donald Norris, director of the center and a UMBC political science professor.
One of those things is putting up the photos, bios and statements that the center solicited on Monday from 590 candidates who had provided their e-mail addresses to the state board. Another hundred or so candidates were sent letters.
The candidates themselves provide the photo and decide what to say in their 250-word biographies and their 250-word statements. Neither the university nor the Board of Elections will be editing the statements.
“We?ve given them the rules,” Norris said. “We?re letting this get policed by the public,” who can let the university know if a candidate has said something off-color, libelous or defamatory.
“We intend to be very liberal” about what is permitted, Norris said, but they do have the option of taking a candidate?s comments off the Web site.
“It?s been a very good process,” said state League of Women Voters President Lu Pierson, who served on the advisory panel which included members of the media. “They actually took the advisory committee very seriously.”
One drawback of the site is that “it does not contain local candidates,” said Pierson. Information about candidates for county office is maintained by local boards of elections. The center hopes to provide that information at a later date.
