UMBC Web Site Has Election Information

Wondering whom to vote for in General Assembly races -- or even who the candidates are? Or whose congressional district you're in: Al Wynn's or Chris Van Hollen's? Or how to get to your polling place?

Log on to the Maryland Voter Information Clearinghouse ( http://mdelections.umbc.edu ), type in your name, birth date and Zip code, and you'll find the answers. Another part of the Web site can show you profiles of the candidates (more than 600 have responded), and yet another will show you where they're getting their campaign cash.

The Web site, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, is a partnership of the state and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

UMBC faculty members and graduate students maintain the site, and the state Board of Elections supplies candidate and voter information. By 2010, the center hopes to extend the service to include county races, offering information on 2,000 or more candidates.

Residents can access their registration information only after matching first and last names with date of birth and Zip code, said Donald Norris, director of the center.

Started last year, the partnership created the National Center for the Study of Elections to take a multidisciplinary approach to looking at the elections process, said Ross Goldstein, the state's deputy administrator of elections. The center pulls together the university's resources in political science, computer science and information technology to look at ways to use new technology to enhance election administration and voting.