Alphabet Inc’s Google said it was introducing new features across its search engine, Maps and voice assistant to help voters in the United States find their nearest voting locations.

Details on in-person voting or returning mail-in ballots can be found under searches with “early voting locations” or “ballot drop boxes near me,” Google said in a blog post, adding the data was pulled from a joint project between state election officials and non-partisan, non-profit civic group Democracy Works.

Google said its voice assistant would also share details on where to vote nearby, if prompted with the question, while Google Maps would provide directions and voting hours for the locations. While asking the Google Assistant where to vote it will “soon” provide relevant information on your phone, speaker, or smart display, Google says.

Then, once you’ve found a location, Google says its Maps service can now give you directions to voting or ballot drop box locations, and will provide information about voting hours. Information like this is especially important this year given many more voters are expected to use mail-in ballots in light of the pandemic. Google says it has partnered with the Voting Information Project to source the voting location information, and plans to list over 200,000 voting locations nationwide. In cases where this information is not available to provide directly, Google says it will point users towards state and local election websites.

As well as proactively providing voting information, Google and its subsidiaries are also attempting to limit the spread of voting misinformation, including claims about mail-in voting. Just last month, YouTube unveiled new rules targeting misinformation about mail-in voting. However, Google was criticized back in August for failing to remove misleading ads about voting by mail. President Trump has repeatedly claimed that mail voting will result in fraud.

Source- The Verge