This Google election conspiracy theory doesn’t hold up
Illustration: The Verge
There’s no evidence Google is hiding a map of polling places from Trump voters, despite the suggestions of a video reposted by Elon Musk.
In the video, originally shared by X user DogeDesigner, a user searches Google for “where can I vote for Harris” and “where can I vote for Trump.” The Harris search shows Google’s 2024 US elections panel, which includes a map you can use to find where to vote. The Trump search does not.
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
A screenshot of Elon Musk’s post.
But there’s a complicating factor here: Harris is also the name of a county in Texas. And the polling map pops up when people search terms like “where can I vote” and a location — try searches like “where can I vote for Brooklyn” or “where can I vote for Tampa,” and you’ll see it appear. And in fact, when The Verge staff tried searching “where can I vote for Harris,” we saw a sidebar mentioning Texas alongside the voting map.
Google directly responded to Musk on X and confirmed that explanation. “The ‘where to vote’ panel is triggering for some specific searches” because of the county in Texas, it said — noting that the same thing happened for “where to vote Vance” with a North Carolina county. The company said the issue was “now fixed” in a subsequent post, and as of publication, a search for “where can I vote for Harris” (or Vance) no longer shows the polling map.
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Google’s response to Elon Musk.
The company also said that “very few people actually search for voting places this way.” If you do still need to find your polling place, you can always bypass Google and go somewhere like Vote.org.
Illustration: The Verge
There’s no evidence Google is hiding a map of polling places from Trump voters, despite the suggestions of a video reposted by Elon Musk.
In the video, originally shared by X user DogeDesigner, a user searches Google for “where can I vote for Harris” and “where can I vote for Trump.” The Harris search shows Google’s 2024 US elections panel, which includes a map you can use to find where to vote. The Trump search does not.
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
A screenshot of Elon Musk’s post.
But there’s a complicating factor here: Harris is also the name of a county in Texas. And the polling map pops up when people search terms like “where can I vote” and a location — try searches like “where can I vote for Brooklyn” or “where can I vote for Tampa,” and you’ll see it appear. And in fact, when The Verge staff tried searching “where can I vote for Harris,” we saw a sidebar mentioning Texas alongside the voting map.
Google directly responded to Musk on X and confirmed that explanation. “The ‘where to vote’ panel is triggering for some specific searches” because of the county in Texas, it said — noting that the same thing happened for “where to vote Vance” with a North Carolina county. The company said the issue was “now fixed” in a subsequent post, and as of publication, a search for “where can I vote for Harris” (or Vance) no longer shows the polling map.
Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge
Google’s response to Elon Musk.
The company also said that “very few people actually search for voting places this way.” If you do still need to find your polling place, you can always bypass Google and go somewhere like Vote.org.