Google wants to help people to figure out how and where to vote.
The search engine on Friday unveiled new features aimed at getting more people to the polls.
Users who enter “early voting locations” or “ballot drop boxes near me” will see a “where to vote” box at the top of their results. They can enter their addresses to find polling locations for Election Day, early voting locations, as well as where they can drop off mail-in ballots.
Google Maps and Google Assistant, the company’s voice-activated helper, will also get new features for finding polling locations.
The updates were developed with help from the Voting Information Project, the voter advocacy nonprofit Democracy Works, and state election officials. In all, Google will provide information about more than 200,000 voting locations nationwide. For people in areas where voting locations are still undetermined, Google will guide users to state and local election websites—and then update that information after it becomes available.
The new features come after Google searches for “how to vote” hit an all-time high in September, according to Google. It also follows previous features Google released in August to help people more easily access information about registering to vote, registration deadlines, and how people can vote in their respective states this year.
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