CLEVELAND, OH—Now topping more than 500,000 hits, the Ohio Roundtable’s new 1998 on-line voter information service is indicating voters may be turning off the outrageous television campaign commercials and looking for non-partisan data so they can sort the facts for themselves.

"With the races for Governor and the Ohio Supreme Court dramatically tightening, we anticipate a big surge as more voters turn to Decision ’98 just before going to the polls," said Ohio Roundtable President David Zanotti.

"People using Decision ’98 are thrilled with this web site. It has the best information, the most information, and it is free of charge," he added.

The Ohio Roundtable will also air a special election edition of  The Public Square, the Roundtable’s radio broadcast, tapping information from the web site. It will air on 15 radio stations statewide Saturday, Sunday and Monday prior to the election. Listeners will hear from gubernatorial candidates regarding positions on key issues.

The Ohio Roundtable has been providing non-partisan issue and candidate information since 1980. It is Ohio Roundtable’s first voter information service available on-line. It is accessible at www.decision98.org.

The on-line voter service details candidate survey information on all races for the General Assembly, the US Congress, the US Senate, and all statewide races including the Supreme Court and the state school board. It offers no editorial comment or endorsements regarding candidates or issues and the Roundtable takes no contributions from candidates or parties.

In addition to publishing candidates’ positions and opinions, Decision ’98 allows voters to communicate interactively with candidates and even obtain a list of statewide candidates’ political contributors. And by simply entering a zip code, voters can obtain data regarding their own district races to customize their use of the website and create a personal sample ballot to print out and use on election day.

The Ohio Roundtable is a non-profit, non-partisan education and research organization dedicated to restoring traditional principles to public policy. The Roundtable has led successful voter registration and information projects reaching millions of Ohioans since its founding in 1980. In addition, the Roundtable has led ballot initiatives such as term limits and campaign finance reform and, most recently, the successful campaign against the proposed state sales tax increase on the May 1998 ballot. The Roundtable is supported by charitable contributions raised primarily from individual citizens, families and corporations.

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