--- title: Voter Registration 2016: More People Searching Than in 2012 description: Search interest related to voter registration has increased some 323% since 2012, according to Google. canonical: https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-19T15:37:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:25.977Z article:section: Politics og:title: More People Are Googling How to Register to Vote Than in 2012 og:description: Searching "how to vote" now brings up an enhanced search feature og:url: https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bb74913fa95e680/6988a18cfb4eacd4f688ea9e/gettyimages-513187996-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=590&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 590 og:image:height: 332 og:image:alt: Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday March 1, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More People Are Googling How to Register to Vote Than in 2012 twitter:description: Searching "how to vote" now brings up an enhanced search feature twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bb74913fa95e680/6988a18cfb4eacd4f688ea9e/gettyimages-513187996-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=590&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More People Are Googling How to Register to Vote Than in 2012 > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 19, 2016 3:37 PM UTC  Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday March 1, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday March 1, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Ron Jenkins—2016 Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 19, 2016 3:37 PM UTC Millions of Americans are turning to the internet to figure out how to cast their ballots this fall—and online searches related to the election are already much higher than they were in 2012, according to data released by Google. Google searches related to voter registration are up 323% compared to four years ago, led by swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Vermont, home base of former Democratic presidential candidate [Sen. Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4423812/bernie-sanders-economy/), saw the biggest spike in searches related to the election, a rise of 358% compared to 2012. Voter registration data isn’t yet available for this year, but Google’s data [offers some early insight into trends](http://time.com/4229252/google-twitter-presidential-elections-predictions-analysis/). To serve the many people searching for election information, Google has rolled out new features including an enhanced [“how to vote”](https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+vote) search result launched this week and a [“how to register”](https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+register+to+vote) search result launched earlier in the summer “This is a special election, where we’re seeing a huge increase in the information needs people are coming to us in terms of the election,” said Emily Moxley, Google’s project manager for the “how to vote” search feature. Google often sees a spike in voting-related searches after big news events, like Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, which coincided with Donald Trump’s condemnation of [the father of a fallen Muslim U.S. soldier](http://time.com/4433453/khizr-khan-pocket-constitution/): There was a 190% increase in voter registration searches compared to the weeks leading up to the convention. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/"},"headline":"More People Are Googling How to Register to Vote Than in 2012","datePublished":"2016-08-19T15:37:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:25.977Z","description":"Searching \"how to vote\" now brings up an enhanced search feature","url":"https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/","keywords":["2016 Election","Tech","2016 Election","Google"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bb74913fa95e680/6988a18cfb4eacd4f688ea9e/gettyimages-513187996-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7bb74913fa95e680/6988a18cfb4eacd4f688ea9e/gettyimages-513187996-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday March 1, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas.","caption":"Voters line up to cast their ballots on Super Tuesday March 1, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas.","creditText":"Ron Jenkins—2016 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4452833/search-how-to-vote-google/","name":"More People Are Googling How to Register to Vote Than in 2012"}}]}] ```