On Tuesday, droves of Wisconsinites will hit the polls and vote in one of the most important elections in our lifetime. Millions upon millions of dollars have been spent on TV, radio and print -- and even a smattering has been spent online.

But, just like in the last election, the local candidates you can vote for in the Milwaukee area have all but ignored their Web presences. Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, obviously, took their sites very seriously. But in congressional and state assembly races, well, 1996 called and it wants its Web sites back.

Just like we did on the eve of the 2006 election, here is an objective, non-partisan look at the Web sites of the candidates for contested offices nationally and in the Milwaukee area. The candidates are listed in alphabetical order, not by party affiliation or site grade.

President:

John McCain (R)
John McCain's Web site opens up with a search engine-unfriendly splash page comprised of video, big buttons and graphics. Once you get to the real homepage, you'll notice large fonts, lots of buttons that look like ads, a fair amount of clip art -- in icons and stock photography -- and a spacey blue background.

Stripped down and straightforward, it's easy to see that McCain is targeting an older demographic that "doesn't do the Facebook." There's a call to action in the right column to "start earning points," but clicking on that doesn't explain what that means.

Graphically, the site keeps McCain and Sarah Palin together in the masthead, though the two images were clearly Photoshopped together.

In terms of usability, clicking on the "donate" button takes you to a separate Web site. The tiny search engine delivers clunky and weird results. The McCain blog appears to be authored not by McCain, but by his staffers. The Spanish language version of the site is much more streamlined and sophisticated-looking, but plays a video upon launch in English (but with Spanish subtitles).

The site would get a higher grade, if it wasn't coming from a candidate with such deep pockets. Grade: B

Barack Obama (D)
Obama's site, too, opens with a splash page, leading to a sleek index page. Icons and imagery are totally unified and custom-illustrated for the site, though it loads more slowly because of all the graphic files.

Obama and Biden are also shown together (but Photoshopped), and are similarly lit and positioned to make them look larger than life.

Obama's site makes use of all the Web 2.0 features you'd expect in 2008: mobile, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg and more. It offers a customized homepage, called "MyBO," which isn't the best abbreviation. The site also geotargets, presenting a Wisconsin specific message to us.

The eCommerce donate tool stays on Obama's site, but erases all navigation. Similarly, the Spanish version looks consistent with the English version, albeit with a stripped down and different nav bar. Similar to the McCain blog, Obama's is written by staffers. Unlike McCain's site, Obama's doesn't feature an obvious search engine. A little too graphically intensive, Obama's site is very good. Grade: A-

State Senate:

Alberta Darling (R)
Darling's homepage is loud and bright and uses a striped background that might send some users into a seizure. Her eCommerce is run through PayPal, which is incredibly amateur. The photos in the free Javascript rotator are at least in focus, though the buttons and header look like they were created by a high school student. Stylistically, the body copy jumps between fonts, and every page is clearly statically created. Darling uses metatags, but misspells Menomonee Falls. Bad design aside, like Wasserman, she gets her points across through a bio and issues page. Grade: C-

Sheldon Wasserman (D)
At first glance, Wasserman's site looks completely homemade. From the blurry, cut-out photo of him in front of the state capital building to the similarly blurry logo and tag line, there's not a lot of polish on this site that uses cheesy fade outs and drop shadows. Not only is the site devoid of metatags, its source code indicated that it was created using a bargain-basement, $49 tool called Coffee Cup. The donate tool is a secure system called ActBlue, which calls itself, "The online clearinghouse for Democratic action." Wasserman has a small blog section with a few posts. His event calendar is the functional, but basic Google Calendar app. The site isn't much to look at, but contains a bio and legislative record. Grade: D+

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