Google search results related to the 2024 presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris triggered backlash on Tuesday after users discovered searching “Where can I vote for Harris” produced a map to find polling locations, whereas searching “Where can I vote for Trump” produced news about the election.
Venture Capitalist David Sacks shared screenshots of the Google search results on X, writing, “Google will help you find a place to vote — unless you’re voting for Trump.”
Google claimed the search discrepancy was caused by counties that have the names “Harris” and “Vance,” and appeared to trivialize concerns because “very few people actually search for voting places this way.”
“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,” Google wrote in a post on X.
“This is now fixed,” the tech giant later added.
Many users on X rejected Google’s explanation, including former Missouri secretary of state candidate Valentina Gomez who wrote, “This is a [bullsh-t] excuse and you all know it. Google donates entirely to the Democratic Party that’s why search results are favorable when you search Kamala but when you search Trump, all you get is negative articles. Election interference. Can’t wait for you guys have to pay in court.”
“I would believe this if it had showed me a map of Harris County TX instead of a map of my current location,” another user wrote.
“Thanks for letting us know, software is hard,” a third user wrote, mocking the tech giant. “Why was the joe rogan trump podcast delisted on search results and on the youtube landing page?”