With about six weeks to go before Election Day, readers understandably can’t seem to get enough political news.

Not only is the hot presidential race capturing their interest, but they also want to know more about the neck-and-neck governor’s race and the four well-known politicians vying for Pierce County executive.

As you would expect, we’re running election stories every day in the paper. This year, for the first time, we’re also aggregating them online, adding even more content and making it all available 24 hours a day.

You can find a link to our online election page from our home page. Or you can go straight there: www.thenewstribune.com/election.

You’ll find links to recent headlines on Political Buzz – one of our most popular blogs, where we post election updates several times a day – and links to the election stories we publish in print.

The stories are placed in county, state and national subcategories, making it easier to scan the page and find what interests you.

Of course, a benefit of the Web is its unlimited space, so our online election page offers some extras. One of our favorites is the “Truth O’Meter,” a service of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Congressional Quarterly. They test statements by or about the presidential candidates and rate them on a scale ranging from true to “pants on fire” (as in liar, liar). Each item provides links to sources.

Here’s a sample of recent findings:

 • Barely true: “In January, I outlined a plan to help revive our faltering economy, which formed the basis for a bipartisan stimulus package that passed the Congress.” – Barack Obama.

 • False: “I have never asked for a single earmark, pork barrel project for my state of Arizona.” – John McCain.

 • Mostly true: McCain “took on the drug industry.”

 • True: Obama’s tax plan cuts taxes “for 95 percent of all working families.”

Our election page also features a link to The News Tribune’s voter guide. (You’ll get the print version in your paper Oct. 19.)

Our voter guide is different from the one the government will distribute next month. We posed questions about issues, experience and agendas to nearly 100 candidates for federal, state and county offices. Check it out to see what they say about the Iraq war, the economy, property taxes, traffic congestion, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and more.

And we give you phone numbers and e-mail addresses in case you’re like the reader we heard from last week who wanted to talk to the candidates directly.

The election page includes two “widgets” provided by MAPLight.org, which tracks campaign fundraising. One widget shows how much Obama and McCain have raised; the other lists all of the candidates for Congress in Washington state.

We also posted links to editorials and endorsements by The News Tribune’s editorial board. And we have a “Political Picks” section in which we link to stories we think readers might find interesting. Current picks include Newsweek magazine’s profile of Sarah Palin and a New York Times story about efforts by both campaigns to woo female voters.

Pointing people online for more information frustrates some newspaper-only readers who fear they’re being shortchanged. The truth is, we haven’t reduced the amount of election coverage in the paper.

But the Internet offers us a wonderful way to satisfy readers looking for even more coverage and seeking a single place where they can read all we’ve written. We’d be shortchanging them if we didn’t satisfy that need as well.

NEW FOR PREP SPORTS FANS

For the past year, one of the most popular sections on our Web site has been our Prep Sports Scoreboard, where we post schedules and scores for all our area high school teams – in all sports.

But if you’re a true football fanatic, you’re out and about on Friday nights, catching the action first-hand. So we’re now sending alerts with local game updates to your mobile device.

Just sign up for the Twitter service and follow us at twitter.com/tntsports.

Karen Peterson: 253-597-8434

karen.peterson@thenewstribune.com