CNN is placing mobile at the center of its midterm election coverage plans with the launch of free applications for Google?s Android, Research In Motion?s BlackBerry and Apple?s iPhone and iPod touch.

The multiplatform CNN Election Center ? accessible via mobile phone, laptop or television ? channels the resources of CNN.com?s political reporting team, the CNN Political Unit, CNN?s Washington and New York bureaus and journalists in the field, as well as CNN?s army of iReporters. Cisco is running banner ads within the applications.

?Apps are a fertile ground for innovation, and as part of our growth, we need and want to experiment with apps on different devices,? said Louis Gump, vice president of mobile at CNN, Atlanta. ?In particular, these three provide a powerful platform to reach a large, engaged audience.

?With the timing of the elections and knowing how important the midterms are to our consumers, launching an elections app now made good sense?both for our users and our business,? he said.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Time Warner?s Turner Broadcasting System Inc., is a news and information media company with nine cable and satellite TV networks, one private place-based network, two radio networks, CNN Digital Network, CNN Newsource and various mobile properties.

Multiscreen presence
From Washington to the campaign trail to main streets, CNN?s political team will continue to provide coverage of the 2010 midterm election season across all CNN platforms, including mobile.

From the network that brought viewers the Magic Wall, the Virtual Capitol during 2008 season, and CNN.com?s collaboration with Facebook on Inauguration Day, CNN once again will use the latest technology to engage the audience in the political process and to detail the stakes the races have in their lives.

The debut of CNN Election Center marks the first time a major cable news brand has simultaneously launched applications for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone/iPod touch.

The applications feature political news through text, video and photos. They also include user-generated content capture and upload functionality through iReport, CNN?s user-generated news community.

Users can access the latest headlines and video related to the midterm elections, as well as share stories with their friends via email, Facebook and Twitter, all directly from the application.

The application also gives users the ability to view the details of all House, Senate and gubernatorial races by ZIP code.

In late October, the application will update to include relevant ballot measures by state and will let users find the nearest polling locations.

The application also incorporates user-participation elements such as the Daily Vote and iReport Election Project.

Each day leading up to the election, the application will feature a different daily vote question for users to share their opinion and see how other users voted.

Through the iReport Election Project, users are invited to participate in a rolling series of up to six challenges.

Participants in the iReport Election Project also will be able to:

? Take a quiz to establish their political identity

? Browse iReports related to the midterm elections

? Capture and instantly upload user-generated photos and videos related to the midterm election

? Earn special badges to be featured on their iReport profile page

On Election Day, the application will showcase real-time election results for House, Senate and gubernatorial races, and key ballot measures, listed alphabetically by state.

Additionally, via the application?s Races section, users can pre-select up to 15 races until Nov. 2, that the app will follow, allowing access to results on Election Day.    

Android and iPhone/iPod touch users can opt-in to have news alerts related to the midterms automatically pushed to their devices.

The CNN Election Center App is available for free from the Android Market, BlackBerry App World and the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.

?We?re hoping that everyone?from people who have a strong interest in their elections to the casual voter to the devotee of politics?will be interested in this app or in our optimized Election Center on mobile Web,? Mr. Gump said.

?We feel like our mobile Web offering for midterm elections is a good complement to the CNN Election Center app,? he said.

Final Take