Google Wants to Help You Vote

Don’t know how to vote? Google wants to fix that.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Google just released a feature that’s bound to make voting in November a whole lot easier.

Starting Tuesday, instead of being met with a mix of popular websites when users type “how to vote” into Google’s search bar, they'll be presented a streamlined summary box of their local voting laws and requirements. The summary also identifies important voting deadlines and has links for registration.

With ever-changing voting laws that vary by state, the new feature is a much-needed innovation that the folks at Google hope will make participation in our democracy simpler.

“The voting process is complicated and overwhelming,” said Emily Moxley, Group Product Manager for Google Search, in an interview with Wired. “Different websites have bits and pieces of the information people need, and it’s hard to tell if the information you’re looking at is up to date. So we collected everything into one location, in terminology that’s easy to grok.”

The new feature is just in time for the Clinton-Trump matchup. According to Google Trends, searches for “how to vote” and “voter registration” accelerate every August of a presidential election year and peak in October, a month before Election Day.



According to Pew, just over half of eligible voters cast ballots in the last U.S. presidential election. With an estimated 112 million eligible Americans not voting and nearly 10 percent failing to do so because they forgot or had registration problems, Google’s new tool could have a tremendous impact this election year.

Latest in Life