Maptitude for Redistricting Software Expedites the Redistricting Process

NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS (USA) - Caliper Corporation announced the release of a new and enhanced version of its Maptitude for Redistricting software, a powerful tool for political redistricting.  With Maptitude for Redistricting, state legislatures, political and public interest groups, city and county governments, and even private citizens can create and submit redistricting plans that meet their goals and will stand up in a court of law.

The results from the 2010 Census will be published in March 2011 signaling the official beginning of this decade’s redistricting cycle.  In addition to having near-equal populations, districts are drawn with race, communities of interest, political party registration, compactness, and location of incumbents in mind.  The complex and often conflicting goals faced by the redistricter can only be addressed using software that can handle a multitude of possible plans in an organized and timely manner.

Exploiting modern Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and powerful personal computers, Maptitude for Redistricting addresses this complexity by facilitating key aspects of creating and evaluating plans.  As the redistricter adjusts the boundaries between districts, the software instantly reports the consequences of these actions in terms of population balance and demographic and political composition. Unlike a general purpose GIS, Maptitude for Redistricting streamlines the process, removes unnecessary steps, and provides all of the supplemental calculations and reports that redistricters want.

Designed with the help of redistricting professionals from state legislatures and political parties, Maptitude for Redistricting works the way redistricters work and is easy to learn and use. It is used by a majority of state legislatures, the Democratic and Republican national parties, many state political parties, cities and counties, and numerous public interest groups.

In addition to the software, Caliper provides the official Census geography and population, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and voting age data.  Maptitude for Redistricting runs on Windows 7, Vista, and XP and is also compatible with a wide range of Microsoft and Esri data formats.

For more information, please visit www.redistricting.com or contact Howard Simkowitz, Director, Government Services (202-652-1024; hsimkowitz@caliper.com).

About Caliper:
Caliper Corporation is a leading developer of transportation, redistricting, and Geographic Information System (GIS) software. Caliper GIS mapping software is used by more than 70,000 users in over 70 countries.