Dartunorro Clark in the Albany Times-Union reports that University of Albany researchers are creating a desktop and smartphone app to provide election information for voters. Alex Muro of Albany and Eric Krans of Altamont, researchers at the Albany Visualization and Informatics Lab at UAlbany, have created Electorate, to put campaign information in voters' computers. "Electorate literally puts information on elected officials into the palm of your hands," Krans said. "The biggest impact comes when we marry easily accessible voting information with the power of existing social networks. Imagine if you could see who your friends, family and neighbors were endorsing in your local elections, or if your friends could see your endorsements. This is the goal of our application." The app placed second in the recent AT&T Tech Valley Civic App Challenge, and includes information on local, state and federal elected representatives. The alpha version of Electorate is available for use through desktop or smartphone, with a beta version in August. See the full story in The Albany Times-Union.