Preview. This is a test version of a free suite tool, on the suite's test site.
Map the no-campaigning zone
Load an aerial picture of a polling place, set its scale, and click the entrance door. You get a printable map with a circle at the no-campaigning distance (75 feet unless you change it), to hand to campaigners so they know where they can stand.
Your picture stays on this computer. Nothing is uploaded: the map is made in this web page. Save a project file to come back to a site later.
The picture
Drop a JPG or PNG here, or
1. Set the scale
Tell the page how big something in the picture really is. Use the longest distance you can: a small mistake in your clicks matters less over a long line. On a tennis court, use its 78-foot length, not its 36-foot width.
Use the number the map was saved at (often 150, 200 or 300). It only works if the picture wasn't resized after.
2. The entrance door
Click where the door is at ground level. Then drag the red dot to adjust it, or type its position.
3. The distance
of the entrance. Check your state's law for the distance.
4. Words on the map
North is taken to be the top of the picture. If it isn't, type how far north is turned clockwise from the top. The arrow is marked approximate.
Your jurisdiction, logo, credit line and disclaimer are remembered on this computer for your next map.
5. Download the map
50 is a good place to start.
Print the PDF at Actual size (100%), not "Fit to page", or the scale won't be right. Check it with a ruler: the scale bar's first inch should read the feet above.
6. Save this polling place
A project file keeps the scale, the door, the distance and the words, so you can reopen the site and move the door later. It is saved to your computer, not to this site.
Notes
How the scale works
Each thing you measure gives the picture's pixels per foot: its length in the picture, in pixels, divided by its real length. The circle's radius in the picture is the distance times pixels per foot.
When you measure more than one thing, the page lists what each one gives and how far apart they are. More than 3% apart usually means a click was off, the size you typed is wrong, or the picture isn't straight down. The page uses the measurement you choose, starting with the longest one.
The PDF is drawn so that 1 inch on paper is exactly the number of feet you choose. The map part is 7.5 by 8.1 inches, centered on the door.
Standard sizes: a tennis court's doubles lines are 36 by 78 feet; a high school basketball court is 50 by 84 feet and a middle school one 42 by 74; baseball bases are 90 feet apart. Parking spaces are usually about 9 feet wide, but they vary, so use them only as a check.
Coming later
- Open a PDF map directly (its first page), instead of a JPG or PNG.
- Read a drone picture's height and camera details to check the scale.
- Find the door from a red dot in a second copy of the same picture.
- Download maps for every polling place at once.