Precision canvasing of voters for political campaigns
Wired Magazine features an article on Pinpointning Voters on a Map using GIS as a political tool in get-out-the-vote efforts, allowing precision canvassing of target areas for campaigns.
GIS is regularly used by local governments and real estate developers to cross-reference important data about an area with its geography in a graphical form, usually overlaying data on overhead photographs or maps of a region.
Now, get-out-the-vote organizers have started overlaying information from registered voter lists, attaching data such as voter history, party registration or time in the community to every physical address on a map.
Consultants from Farallon Geographics helped San Mateo county election officials target neighborhoods populated primarily by Latino and Chinese-American residents - ethnic groups that have often failed to turn out to the polls in large numbers, because so many in the groups are not comfortable with English.
Using the new GIS solution, election officials can dispatch voter-outreach specialists with materials written in the voters’ native languages, telling them how to register and explaining what the ballots contain.
GIS like the San Mateo/Farallon solution is transforming how politics and elections are done.