Already regretting your vote?

“How do I change my vote” trending on Google

The US election is over, even if not all voters seem to want to admit it.

(Bild: APA/AFP/KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI)

US President-elect Donald Trump won the election with an unexpectedly clear landslide victory. However, many voters are likely to have changed their minds shortly afterwards - at least if you believe the latest Google searches. 

As the US magazine "Newsweek" reported, searches for "how do I change my vote" on Google skyrocketed on election day in the states won by President-elect Donald Trump.

Trend especially in key swing states
The number of searches on the topic of changing votes reached a value of 100 in Google Trends - the company always assigns a value between 0 and 100 to the search volume based on the total number of searches during a specific period. The effect was particularly strong in swing states (i.e. election-deciding states), which Trump was able to win.

Jump in searches after election result
Logically, it is not entirely clear from the figures whether the apparently disappointed voters are Democratic or Republican supporters. According to the data, searches for "how do I change my vote" spiked at 7 a.m. on Nov. 5, Election Day, before gradually declining throughout the day.

On November 6, significantly fewer people inquired about the possibility of changing their vote, but on November 7, search queries increased again.

Apparently striking gaps in knowledge
While it should be obvious to most people that you cannot change your vote once it has been cast, there actually seems to be a significant number of people who are unaware of this. In Iowa, according to "Newsweek," there have been the most requests to change their vote, especially in the Des Moines-Ames and Cedar Rapids-Waterlook-Iowa City and Dubuque areas.

Many are also considering emigration
On Nov. 6, the visa website La Vida recorded an unprecedented 2,300 percent increase in visitors to the U.S., suggesting that Americans may be considering moving abroad after Trump's victory.

The increase is five times higher than the number of visitors to the La Vida website after the 2020 election, when visitor numbers increased by 4.5 times the normal level. La Vida said that while they had expected increased demand for visas after the election, the level of interest this time "surprised" them.

In addition, Google Trends reported a jump in search terms such as "how to move to Canada legally," "moving to Canada from the U.S." and "requirements for moving to Canada," with the highest search volumes coming from states that strongly supported Harris, including Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire and Vermont.