Shape Files

The VIP format defines precincts by street segments. However, often I talk with people who want to use shapefiles to view precincts. They run into the same basic challenge that VIP deals with: some states publish the information, some states don't. During redistricting, the census publishes nationwide precinct shapefile -- unfortunately, the last redistricting was in 2000. If you don't want to wait until the 2010 data is published, I've started a Google Doc with a list of official precinct shape files by state. If you want to contribute to this list, let us know

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, shapefiles let you do things like this: