An informed citizen is a prepared voter, and this year people going to the polls have several new sources of online information to help them do their civic duty.

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizens Education Fund has created a site, under the Smart Voter project, for citizens in Allegheny and several other counties in the state. By going to www.smartvoter.org/2009/05/19/pa/al, Allegheny County Democrats and Republicans will find a list of races and candidates for the May 19 primary.

The site includes brief bios, priorities, key endorsements and Web links for the statewide judicial candidates, county judge candidates and contenders for municipal offices. It also has a handy My Ballot feature that lets you type in your address, thus generating the specific ballot at your polling place.

You can see who is contributing to these campaigns by clicking on apps.county.allegheny.pa.us/campaignfinanceview at Allegheny County's Web site. It's the first time the county has posted campaign expense reports online, and it's not a moment too soon, given all the attention being paid locally to pay-to-play politics. Just scroll through the list of candidates, match the office, the report and the year -- and you're ready to see who gave what to whom.

Finally is the Post-Gazette's own Meet the Candidates feature at www.post-gazette.com/forum, which has news stories and editorial endorsements on the races, plus candidate bios, photos, Web links and even audio interviews.

All of this information can be accessed on your personal computer or at the local library. Regardless of when you plan to vote, there's no excuse to go there in the dark.