Google just released a tool designed to drive voter turnout (GOOG, GOOGL)
We're less than three months away from the election and Google is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to figure out how to vote.
Deadlines and ID requirements vary significantly from state to state, and it can be hard or confusing to track down clear, up-to-date information, so Google is putting a new a new toolbar front and center for anyone who searches for "how to vote."
"We've been putting significant resources behind driving voter turnout," Emily Moxley, the Googler leading the company's efforts, tells Business Insider. "We're developing a whole new suite of tools that make the registration process easier and more accessible to everyone."
Google partnered with law firm Perkins Coie to get the information for the new in-depth search tool, which lets users sort by state for info on ID requirements, deadlines, mail-in ballots, and early voting.
It's also dumping all that data here, to make it easier for other organizations to spread it.
Moxley says that Google's increased commitment to voting resources this year was driven both by the company's overall mission (to serve users by organizing the world's information), but also a surge in public interest in this year's race between Democratic and Republican nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Google search interest for elections-related content is up 323%, and 130% for "voter registration" from where they were at this point in 2012. There has been a 190% spike in searches for "voter registration" since the conventions.
In 2012, only about 126 million people voted, and some 93 million eligible citizens did not vote. Google wants to help change those stats.
Moxley's team will be working hard for the next three months, releasing plenty of new stats and data through its Search Trends team.
They put together an interactive map showing the percentage change in voter registration search interest since 2012:
Here's a different look at that data:
Here's how the search tools looks in GIF form:
And here's an idea of how interest surged after the conventions:
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