A national internship program is offering students at the University of Massachusetts an opportunity to work behind the scenes of the political system, as long as students agree to set their partisanship aside during certain hours.

Project Vote Smart, an organization that strives to maintain the ideals of democracy, created a 10-week internship program for students to learn about the candidates that participate in national elections. The organization will offer scholarships for three to five UMass students interested in doing work on the 2004 elections.

Interns will get the opportunity to do background checks on over 40,000 candidates for President, Congress, Governor and State Legislator.

“We are looking for interns that are, of course, interested in politics,” said Lisa Coligan, the Internship Coordinator for Project Vote Smart. “Students should have strong communication skills, be comfortable using the computer, and willing to put their political beliefs aside from the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Students also must have good standing with the University, be eager to commit for 10 consecutive weeks and will be expected to maintain the facility, in order to be accepted into the program.

Interns will work at the Great Divide Ranch Retreat and Research Facility, which is situated in the Rocky Mountains close to Phillipsburg, Mont. The internship director will choose the designated department the intern should be placed in based on his or her “individual applicant skills, departmental priority, and projects available,” according to the organization’s Web site.

Jobs available for interns include news assistant, research and hotline assistant, national political awareness test assistant and information technology assistant.

“Some interns will basically sift through a big database full of voting records, biographical information, public statements, and speeches on candidates,” said Coligan. “The information on the candidates is then provided on ‘a user-friendly voter’s self-defense system’ found on the Web site and on our toll free number.”

Speeches are obtained directly from the candidates’ Web sites and the discourse is reiterated exactly so as to not alter the context of the piece. The main goal of Project Vote Smart is to provide a resource in which “relevant and well-organized information about candidates for public office [is] in the hand’s of voters before Election Day,” the Web site.

The organization is run independently and will not accept financial contributions from lobbyists, governmental organizations, corporations or businesses. Project Vote Smart is able to provide unbiased information about candidates through private donations from 45,000 members as well as from grants from charitable organizations such as the Carnegie, Ford, and Pew foundations.

In order to provide the most democratic, non-partisan information to voters, Project Vote Smart moved its office from Boston, Mass. to the Montana Rocky Mountains to avoid being in a place that is a political hot seat. The positive side to having the organization located in Montana is that students and members get to enjoy the ambiance of the “great outdoors” and appreciate the scenery.

“Though we can’t afford to pay our interns or other workers, we can send you on a trip to Montana, which is absolutely gorgeous, for 10 weeks,” Coligan said.

The Great Divide Ranch Retreat and Research Facility is about three miles from the Continental Divide. The area offers fly-fishing rivers, hiking and horseback riding during the summer months in addition to ice fishing, skiing and snowmobile during the winter months.

The Great Divide Ranch Retreat and Research Facility also offers tennis, basketball and horseshoe facilities. Students will live in lodges that house between two and six people. A full-time lodge manager that lives on the property prepares meals and assigns the interns weekly cleaning and maintenance chores, the Web site said.

The organization was created in 1992 by 40 national leaders, including previous Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. The goal of the founders was to bridge the gap between voters and the irresponsible coverage of political campaigns by the mass media.

Project Vote Smart strives to provide “just the facts” to the voter, so the voting process will be less difficult, frustrating and time-consuming, according to the project’s Web site.

The Indianapolis Star said Project Vote Smart is “one of the nation’s most trusted voter research organizations. [It] May be the most useful voter project in the country.”

The organization also made strong connections with newspapers and broadcast organizations, such as CNN, MSNBC, PBS, the Chicago Tribune and Washington Week and Review. Political editors and news directors also help the organization revise the National Political Awareness Tests, which are “issue-oriented questions” given to candidates for President, U.S. Senate, Governor, U.S. House of Representatives and State Legislature.

Project Vote Smart has also included an educational program on their Web site titled, “Vote Smart Classroom,” for students in kindergarten through high school. The Web site provides classroom activities and ideas for teachers by “fellow educators” that suggest how to teach students at a young age about the electoral process.

To use the telephone service, call 1-800-VOTE-SMART.

On the Net: www.vote-smart.org.