FACT CHECK: Is Google Showing A Map When Searching “Where To Vote For Harris” But Not For Trump?
A post going viral on X shows two different results when searching for “Where can I vote for Harris” vs “Where can I vote for Trump.”
BREAKING: Google shows you where to vote for Harris, but not for Trump: pic.twitter.com/L3PUpPiNJ2
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 5, 2024
Verdict: Misleading
According to Google, it is because Harris is the name of a county in Texas, so it shows a map as intended. Results have nothing to do with manipulation.
Fact Check:
With today being Election Day in the United States, poll results should be reported within the next few hours. Some states such as Nevada stated that results could take days.
The 2020 election was famously marred with accusations of malfeasance, and my prominent people are watching polling places with a keen eye. All irregularities are being highlighted on social media, and more are sure to be coming out in the coming days.
Today saw many prominent users on X, including owner Elon Musk, share a set of images that show two different results when searching almost the same query. They show that when a user searches “Where can I vote for Harris” they get a result that shows a map, while when they search “Where can I vote for Trump” they do not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2024
This information needs further context, however. While the posts are accurate, and Check Your Fact was able to replicate them, they are the result of a glitch in Google’s system that they claim to have rectified.
The issue stems from Google’s algorithm thinking that the prompt was asking for info about voting in Harris County, Texas. Adding a location usually brings up a map when seeing results. Since there is a Vance County in North Carolina, the same result happened when searching for “Where to vote Vance.”
The “where to vote” panel is triggering for some specific searches bc Harris is also the name of a county in TX. Happens for “Vance” too bc it’s also the name of a county. Fix is coming. Note very few people actually search for voting places this way. pic.twitter.com/P8xSxcJmLa
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) November 5, 2024
Google’s official account has also posted on X to confirm that the issue was fixed. Check Your Fact searched “Where to vote for Harris” at 5:50pm on Election Day, and can confirm that no maps show up when searching that query again.
Google also added in it’s post that very few people actually search for this information.
