In political campaigns, reaching voters is key.

Local candidates knock on doors, attend church cookouts and organize phone banks. If they can afford it, they might run ads on local TV or radio.

This year, more of them are taking their messages to the Web.

"It is a growing trend, there's no doubt about that, in both local elections and those for higher office," said William Cassie, a political scientist at Appalachian State University. "If people are interested, it's a very inexpensive way to get a message out there. It can be used for positive reasons or it can be used for negative reasons."

Candidates for national office have used Web sites to promote their campaigns for almost as long as the Internet has been around. But until recently, the Internet hasn't been a big factor in races for offices such as county commissioner or school board.

In Forsyth County this year, some local candidates are hoping that the Internet can give them an edge over less technologically savvy opponents. For the most part, their campaign Web sites are nothing fancy. They contain biographical information, short statements on key issues, requests for donations and occasional campaign news. And the sites don't seem to get many hits.

But the candidates using the Internet - most of whom are challengers trying to unseat more established incumbents - say that it is a useful tool to supplement more traditional campaign methods, especially because Web sites don't require much money.

"It's very difficult to break into the political arena and get the message out in a cost-effective way," said Bill McDonough, who is running for county commissioner. "The Web is probably one of the most cost-effective ways of doing that."

Some candidates go further than static campaign Web sites.

Ross Smith, who is running for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board, posted to his site a video clip of a speech he gave about the county's graduation rate, which he believes is too low. Separately, Smith for a while had a Web log, or blog, on which he described visits to many schools around the county.

A short ad for Ted Kaplan, who is running for at-large county commissioner, was recently posted to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube - although it has been viewed only a handful of times.

That illustrates the inherent limitation of using the Web, Cassie said. Unlike traditional campaign ads, which can reach a broad audience, Web sites are useful only if potential voters seek them out.

"I wouldn't want to bank my electoral chances on going with Web sites and ignoring the traditional methods, because with other forms of campaign ads, you get to people who aren't looking for you," Cassie said.

McDonough, who works on Web projects at Wachovia, said that his site gets eight or 10 unique visitors each day. "To me, that's pretty good, given that we're a small campaign," he said.

On the site for school-board candidate Elisabeth Motsinger, a poll asks visitors which issue they care about most. In more than three months, the poll has garnered only 16 votes.

Statistics such as these make some candidates, especially incumbents, skeptical of the effect of the Internet in local races. McDonough's opponent, Debra Conrad-Shrader, the current vice chairwoman of the board of commissioners, had what she called "a humdinger of a Web site" when she ran unsuccessfully for the N.C. General Assembly two years ago, but she said that it didn't help her.

"I got like one e-mail off it," she said. "I didn't feel that it was that effective. Usually a commissioners' race is not high-profile enough to necessitate that."

Smith acknowledged that local campaign sites don't get too many hits, but he said he believes they have a strong influence on the people who do visit them. Asked how effective his own site has been, he said: "Ineffective, in terms of the volume of traffic. Effective, in that when people have gone there, they have been very responsive and have said that it's really helpful."

Cassie said that the number of voters who use the Internet to research political candidates is likely to keep growing.

• James Romoser can be reached at 727-7284 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.