Google ‘fixes’ issues with voting search results that weren’t actually broken

Google says it has addressed an issue with its search engine that saw it displaying a “where to vote” panel, which includes a map of polling places, for some specific voting-related searches but not for others. The tech giant even used the word “fixed” to respond to the matter, despite the fact that Google Search was working correctly and as designed. In doing so, Google gave fuel to baseless conspiracy theories that it was intentionally displaying biased results.

The issue was highlighted on X by Elon Musk, who asked if others were seeing the problem with the “where to vote” queries, too, and later posted an emoji of a face with a raised eyebrow when resharing another user’s post showing the differences in two Google searches.

The problem, according to Musk and his supporters, was that users who searched for “Where can I vote for Harris?” would see a map display prompting them to enter a street address to find their local polling place. But those who entered the same query for Trump would only see a selection of top stories and other standard search results.

The conspiracy raised didn’t hold water, though, as Google confirmed on X that the search engine was effectively working as intended given that “Harris” is also the name of a location — a county in Texas — while Trump is not. As Google pointed out in an X post on Tuesday afternoon, a similar map would appear if users searched for “where can I vote for Vance?” (Trump’s VP pick), because “Vance” is also the name of a county.

That explanation should have been enough to debunk the conspiracies circulating on X that Google was displaying biased results. Despite this clarification, Google decided to change how and when the “where to vote” panel would appear in response to these searches, making it appear like the company was taking accountability for a mistake it made.

In a post on X at 3:22 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the search giant said a fix was coming, adding that very few people would actually search for voting information by appending the name of their county to their query. At 3:38 p.m. ET, Google posted “Update: This is now fixed.”

As expected, Google’s word choice — saying it had “fixed” the problem — raised questions from those prone to believing that Google was somehow trying to influence the election. Users on X questioned why, if Google had not done anything wrong, would it need to “fix” the issue. Others continued to call out Google for the mistake and suggested various punitive actions like fines and lawsuits.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.