WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather and Sports |Politicians use GIS technology to their advantage

Geographic Information System or GIS technology, which is used in many government departments, will soon be useful for politicians too.

GIS technology has been used by Sumner County for about five years for property assessment, saving taxpayers money.

Sumner County's Property Assessor John Isbell said, "We used it during our review cycle. We're able to go in and look at these properties and get an idea if there's been any changes to the property."

It's a system he hopes to help further develop and share with officials statewide.

"This is a model we're going to share across Tennessee to help them use the system as well," said Isbell.

As the campaign season stirs up, candidates will be using the technology to their advantage. 

By combining GIS mapping technology with statistics from TDOT, campaigns can figure out which streets are the busiest.

Then, they can strategically place their signs, and when canvassing door-to-door, they can be tracked via cell phone.

Jeremy Weber, Director of Product Development at GEO-Jobe, said GIS also helps candidates keep track of their districts.

"The redistricting process resulted in a shift in political boundaries; some districts may have completely gone away because there was a decline in population count. Bottom line is the constituents have changed," said Weber.

The technology is also used in politics in conjunction with data collected with the U.S. Census Bureau, and in other government departments like public safety, public works, and education.

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• Jan. 4, 2012: Tenn. House GOP plan would create 6 new districts