Why do so many Americans not know how to vote?

After last week’s US presidential debate, Google searches for election-related queries surged, rising nearly 70% immediately after the end of the live broadcast, according to data from data analytics company SEMrush. Americans wanted to know about the Covid-19 vaccine, about unemployment, and the Supreme Court. Searching for (very basic) voter information this close to the election is quite common, says Whitney Quesenbery, the director of the Center for Civic Design, a non-profit that applies design approaches to streamline voter engagement and the election process.