A nonpartisan voter education organization solicited funds from Madison residents Friday in an effort to help voters get their facts straight about political candidates.

Project Vote Smart started in 1988 as the nation's first system to collect information on political candidates to help inform voters. Now, through the Voter Self-Defense system, the project makes that information available to the public.

"The thing is, the effort increases every year to control the information, to manipulate it, to sanitize it," said Richard Kimball, the president of Project Vote Smart.

The organization's method of self-defense in the face of manipulation is to get facts, not the rhetoric, Kimball said.

The goal of Project Vote Smart is to empower American citizens by providing them access to accurate information about candidates. By visiting its website or calling its toll-free number, citizens can access information about a candidate's campaign finances, position on certain issues and voting records.

At the event Friday, Kimball talked to Madison residents about the Voter Self-Defense system and encouraged them to donate to the cause, as the organization is nonprofit. He addressed current issues Americans are concerned about, such as the growing national debt and global warming, and explained how Project Vote Smart informs the public on politician's' efforts to curb these negative trends.

"You're betting everything you've got and everything you ever will have that your local congressman is going to take care of it for you–. 'It's the way the system works," Kimball said. "Only it's difficult for them to see those things as problems when their nice campaign contribution is largely to depend upon them not seeing that."

Because Kimball himself campaigned against John McCain for senator of Arizona in 1986, he said he knows firsthand what campaigning for election involves.

According to a press release, completing the project has taken 16 years, $12 million and the work of more than 6,000 volunteers and staff members at Project Vote Smart.

"I knew that this was something I wanted to do," said Mary Dillon Galbraith, a member of Project Vote Smart and Madison resident.

Kimball said the kind of information Project Vote Smart provides is necessary for voters to defend themselves against sometimes selfish political motives.

"I believe that greed and selfishness is certainly natural to the 'mobbish' behavior of factions that the founding fathers were worried about, but it certainly does not fit into American tradition, which is locked into a background of a love of liberty and a sense of self-reliance," Kimball said.

According to Kimball, it is this basis of liberty and self-reliance that motivates the Voter Self-Defense system.

"At least use us to defend yourself," Kimball said.

Project Vote Smart depends heavily on member contributions and volunteers, and it does not accept money from special interest groups.

Kimball plans to travel to all 50 states to promote the Voter Self-Defense system.