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"Paul Blumenthal is senior writer at the Sunlight Foundation, where he blogs about transparency in government. You can learn more by signing up for useful updates at SunlightFoundation.com/join. \nMidterm elections got you confused? There are plenty of social media tools and sites that might just help you make sense of what's going on. Below is a collection of incredibly useful websites to provide you all the information you'll need about candidates before you vote on November 2.\nFind out who's funding whom, candidates' connections to lobbyists, the outside spending in each race, candidate views on all the issues, how they voted on bills and what ads are running. This selection of sites is broken down into a few different sections to help you get at the issue you're aiming for.\nRead on, and get involved!\nEditor's Note: This list was put together by the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization that creates and invests in websites leading the movement to push for open and transparent government.  The sites marked below with an asterisk are either created by or supported financially by the Sunlight Foundation.\n\r\nInfluence\r\n \n\n\n\n\n\nInfluence Explorer *: Connect the dots from campaign contributors to every candidate running for Congress. You'll soon be able to send a postcard from the site with a candidate\u2019s campaign contributors and industry backers to convince your friends and family to learn more about the person they support.\nFollow the Unlimited Money*: A real-time updated database on the unprecedented outside spending by groups that don't disclose their donors \u2014 a must-follow this election season.\nParty Time*: Who\u2019s raising cash with a little help from lobbyists? Who held fundraisers in DC while campaigning on an anti-Washington ticket? Check out this highly praised database of political fundraisers to find out.\nPoligraft*: Illuminate the connections between politicians, lobbyists and organizations in any article, blog post or press release via this site (and bookmarklet). Use it to share with others what you find.\nOpenSecrets*: A comprehensive site to check the campaign contributions to a politician, which lobbyists used to work for them and what financial investments they've made.\n\n\r\nVoting\r\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe New Organizing Institute\u2019s Guide to Voting: The go-to site for a state-by-state listing of the basic information every voter needs to know: polling places, voter registration, early and absentee ballots, and the names of all officials on the ballot.\nVote Easy: Evaluate which candidate's view most closely matches your own with this state-by-state electoral guide.\nState Vote: An easy-to-use site that allows you to quickly look up and evaluate the state-level elections, including legislative races and ballot initiatives. It contains incredibly detailed descriptions for ballot initiatives.\nTurboVote*: Need help with early voting? Need a helpful reminder to vote on Election Day? TurboVote is here to help with user-friendly early and absentee voting help and a text and e-mail service that will remind you to get out to the polls.\nTheBallot.org: Find and read voter guides sent out by various partisan and issue advocacy organizations. You can also add voter guides that you receive in your state.\nGoogle Election Center: Yet another resource providing precinct-level voting information including voting locations, registration instructions and ballot initiative information.\n\n\r\nAirwaves\r\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSunlight Campaign Ad Monitor*: The real background info on campaign ads, as reported by you. Check out who's funding which ads, and help out by contributing details on ads that you've seen or heard.\nCampaign Ad Database: The Huffington Post has been collecting political advertisements and posting them here. See more ads from candidates and outside committees as they fight it out in the air wars.\n\n\r\nBackground\r\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPolitiFact: See if that controversial statement your senator or your senator's opponent made was actually true \u2014 a key resource this election cycle.\nFactCheck.org: Another fact-checking resource. Follow the ad wars between candidates, outside groups and parties to see which ad is telling the truth. The site also tracks statements made by candidates themselves.\nOpenCongress*: Check out the legislative record of incumbent members of Congress running for re-election.\nProject Vote Smart: This is a great resource for information on the legislative history, speeches and interest group ratings for all candidates at the federal or state level.\n\nWhich resources were most useful for you? Let us know in the comments below.\nMore Government Resources From Mashable:\n- Social Media: The New Battleground for Politics- How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results- How Social Media is Changing the Way Government Does Business- 5 Things the Library of Congress is Archiving Online- How Open Data Applications are Improving Government\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, pagadesign"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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