Candidates for office no doubt tire of filling out special-interest questionnaires asking for their opinions on myriad topics. Now, rather than filling out numerous forms from groups with a specific agenda, they can do their constituents a service by taking the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT) put together by Project Vote Smart, an independent group, which as its name suggests, aims to help voters make smart choices.

The group’s “test” provides a lengthy checklist of issues and asks the candidate to check off those that he or she would support if elected. (Through research, the group has found that voters aren’t as interested in what candidates oppose.) Candidates can also write in longer responses. The test covers dozens of issues ranging from abortion to welfare reform to budget priorities and tax policies. The results and much more useful information are easily accessible to voters at www.vote-smart.org.

The project’s premise is simple: Voters should be given the information they need to make informed choices. Voters, however, can’t do their part if the candidates don’t do theirs.

Maine’s congressional delegation is batting .500 when it comes to taking the NPAT. Sen. Olympia Snowe and Rep. Tom Allen answered the questionnaire in their latest campaigns; all the candidates should respond in 2004.

If they do, it would also be helpful if the hundreds of special interest groups didn’t bombard congressional offices with their own questionnaires. Because of the groups’ slants and votes they select for analysis, these scorecards are often of little use to the average voter.

On budgetary and tax issues, in 2000, the last year she was up for re-election, Sen. Snowe received scores ranging from 22 percent from the Concord Coalition to 80 percent from Americans for Tax Reform, based on the percentage of votes that the senator cast voted for their favored position. Without a lot more research, it is hard to know what these ratings mean. Based on the 2000 NPAT, voters quickly learn that Sen. Snowe would support tax cuts if there were a budget surplus and that her top priorities for funding are education, Social Security and debt reduction. A voter would also learn that Sen. Snowe favors eliminating the inheritance tax and would greatly increase cigarette taxes.

This information is much more useful than ranking based on specific votes. Rather than sending out their own voluminous questionnaires, special interest groups should work with Project Vote Smart to allow candidates the time to take a test that matters.