Topix announced last week the launch of Election 2010: Citizen Sound-Off, at http://www.topix.com/pr/election2010. The site is for discussing elections and candidates on a hyperlocal level (by zip code.)

From the front page, enter a zip code to start. Good ol’ 90210 got me the page for Beverly Hills, CA, with several polls on the front page representing state, state/federal, and very local offices. It looks like generally only the Republicans and Democrats are shown (the race for governor was an exception) which is a shame because in some cases a third-party candidate is doing better in the poll then one of the main two candidates (the Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor, for example, is polling better at this writing than the Democrat.)

Each of the polls has a place for comments, but there’s a very active discussion form toward the bottom of the page. There I found discussions on various races, propositions, and campaign-related events (like debates.) These forums were very busy: the forum on candidate for governor had 1,924 comments/posts.

If you want to discuss very local elections, this is great, but it lacks a bit of data. Since it is hyperlocal, I suppose Topix assumes that you’re familiar with the candidates. Looking at the candidates on 90210, I had no idea who Chelene Nightingale was, despite the fact that she was doing so well in the poll. I had to look her up. It would be good if Topix linked to the official candidate Web site, or maybe local news stories or Wikipedia.