Do you know which voting precinct you live in? Do you know its boundaries? How about your Utah house, senate, and judicial districts, and your U.S. congressional district? Have you wondered what geographic explanations there might be for the districts' funny squiggly borders?

If you find these questions interesting, you'll love the new Google Earth political maps available on the Utah County Democrats website (http://www.utahcountydems.com). The maps are based on public GIS databases provided by Utah County and by the State of Utah.

 "It's interesting to see political districts in the three-dimensional view made possible by Google Earth," says Nathan Hadfield, chair of the Utah County Democrats' Technology Committee. "It becomes very clear how certain boundaries are shaped by mountain ridges and valleys."

Google Earth is a free multi-platform application from Google that renders the entire earth with satellite photography, while shaping the planet's surface according to actual elevation data. The result is a stunning simulation that can make you feel like Superman as you hop about the planet at supersonic speeds.  

"The maps are useful for determining which political districts a location falls within," Hadfield explains, "because you can zoom in or out as far as you like and click on any object to see its voting precinct, Utah house or senate district, congressional district, or judicial district. It's like you're in an extremely fast airplane, looking down at the state of Utah as if its entire surface had been painted over by political regions."

The maps can be viewed right within the Utah County Democrats website, or opened as an overlay inside the standalone Google Earth application. The Utah County Democrats hope the maps will be a useful and interesting resource for our friends of all political persuasions.