Sites have the goods on candidates

Site-Seeing with Jan Perry

If the polls, pundits and press are to be believed, this election is up for grabs and the ''undecideds'' will be the determining factor.

If you fall within that category, these sites might help you make up your mind.

http://issues2000.org/default.htm. This site has everything the debates didn't - including all issues, all parties and all candidates. Compare campaign quotes, promises and party platforms on dozens of issues. This is one of the best sites I've seen for showing specific stands and the inevitable running promise versus voting record flip-flops of all the candidates.

http://www.politics1.com. This site offers the complete political package including Democrats, Republicans and Independents at the national and state levels. This one even has a page for folks who collect election-related materials. (Note: add /bush.htm or /gore.htm tothe address to see candidate summaries, endorsements and links.)

http://www.pollingreport.com/election. Follow the numbers daily with this well presented collection of political polls. View totals from ABC, CNN/USA Today/Gallup, NBC, Reuters/MSNBC and Voter.com as well as the results from various trial heats.

http://www.electyo u.com/electoralmap.htm. This site offers a map with the states defined as for a particular candidate, leaning toward one or tied as to probable voting tallies come election night. Also included is a list of the states, their electoral votes and the polling service used to create the map. A running total of votes for each candidate or at the very least highlighting the list to match the map would make this more readable.

http://www.publicintegrity.org. If you're looking for a completely non-partisan investigation of all political candidates and accountability issues, this is one site not to miss. The Center for Public Integrity takes a hard look at soft money contributions, mainstream campaign contributions, candidate profiles and much more.

http://www.realchange.org. The Skeleton Closet sounds like a seasonal site, but it is actually for those who prefer getting political news from the tabloid press or are looking for juicy gossip, scandals and rumors about each of the candidates.

Historical as well as current politicians are included.

Jan Perry is a freelance writer. Send questions or suggestions to her at SiteSeer2K@aol.com.