CHAPEL HILL - Many North Carolinians don't know who to vote for in some of the state's top offices. But voters can find an abundance of factual and unbiased information about incumbents and those who wish to replace them by going to the Web site of Project Vote Smart.

Project Vote Smart is a unique research center, a national library of sorts that collects and checks information on candidates for public office -- for the presidency, both houses of Congress, governorships, state legislators and judges. This information is readily available on the Internet at www.vote-smart.org.

Project Vote Smart also sends each candidate a Political Courage Test. As stated on the organization's Web site, the Political Courage Test is a key component of Project Vote Smart's Voter Self-Defense system. Major leaders of the media, major parties and Project Vote Smart ask candidates one central question: "Are you willing to tell citizens your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf?"

It asks candidates which items they will support if elected. The Political Courage Test is sent to all candidates for president and to those seeking congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative offices.

In the Voter's Self-Defense Manual for the 2006 federal elections, elected officials were graded with a pass if they answered the test, and a fail if they refused it. The manual recorded many such failures, indicating an unwillingness by candidates to tell voters their positions on critical issues affecting them.

Project Vote Smart was started by Richard Kimball, who in 1986 ran for the U.S. Senate from Arizona. He upset his consultants by refusing to use a vicious attack against his opponent, and he lost.

Lamenting the fact that voters had insufficient access to unbiased, factual information about the people who would represent them in government, Kimball conceived the idea of gathering information about candidates, testing it for fact and bias and making it available to voters, who could then more accurately decide whom they wanted to represent them in public decision making.

The strictly nonpartisan Project Vote Smart is looked to as a reliable political information resource by voters, journalists and teachers. It accepts no contributions from government, special interests, political action committees, labor unions or corporations. Its work is funded solely by its 40,000 individual supporters and by philanthropic foundations.

It alerts voters to its resources through volunteers, called ambassadors, who give talks and show a DVD about the work of Project Vote Smart to civic groups, churches, high schools, university groups and community organizations. It is also operating a bus that is touring the country to publicize its resources during this election year.

Voters no longer need to be misled by the opposing and often confusing political ads of candidates and parties in the media. They can gain immediate access to the information they seek about candidates and incumbents through Project Vote Smart.

This year, don't just vote, Vote Smart!

(Lew Miles is a local ambassador for Project Vote Smart. Voters who lack access to a computer can call 1-888-VOTE-SMART toll free and ask to have a copy of the Voter's Self Defense Manual mailed to them or seek an answer to a question about a candidate.)