Google Fixes ‘Where to Vote’ Problem With Harris, Vance Searches

Google's logo in Mountain View, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters

Google said Tuesday it is working to fix an error causing the search engine to show a “where to vote” panel when people tried to search for Vice President Harris and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

In a statement posted on X, the tech giant said that the panel “is triggering for some specific searches bc Harris is also the name of a county” in Texas, and also happened for Vance because “it’s also the name of a county.”

“Note very few people actually search for voting places this way,” the company said.

Google was responding to a claim made on X that some people were getting the search engine panel when one typed, “Where can I vote for Harris” but not for former President Donald Trump.

A screenshot posted by the Google account also showed a similar panel appearing when “Where to vote Vance” was entered.

“This is now fixed,” Google said shortly afterward in an “update” post, responding to X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s question about the matter.

An Epoch Times review of similar search terms with the names of Vance, Harris, Trump, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did not result in the panels being shown.

For years, Trump and Republicans have alleged Google has favored Democratic candidates, accusing the search giant of censoring content related to conservatives and Republicans.

Earlier this year, Trump wrote on social media that Google should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice for allegedly showing overwhelming negative articles about him and positive ones about Harris.

“This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social two months ago. He added in the post that if he wins the Nov. 5 presidential election, “I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels.”

Last month, Google subsidiary YouTube was accused of censoring search results related to podcaster Joe Rogan’s interview with Trump, which drew tens of millions of views in a few days. Responding to the controversy, Rogan alleged in a separate episode last week that the issues were “not a mistake.”

“If you Googled ‘Rogan Trump’ you could only get clips, you couldn’t watch the whole episode, you couldn’t find it. And so we reached out to them a couple of times, and they fixed it, to their credit, so now you can find it,” Rogan said.

“There’s no way it was a mistake, that’s too convenient,” he later said.

Last week, YouTube told media outlets that “for some searches on Monday the original 3-hour interview didn’t appear prominently. Short excerpts uploaded by the Joe Rogan channel appeared, but we know it was frustrating for users looking to find the full video.”

“We’ve worked to resolve this and viewers will begin seeing the full podcast in more YouTube search results soon,” the company said.