Can both candidates get to 270 votes? Here’s a look at the top election internet searches

There is a lot of curiosity about the electoral college

FILE PHOTO: Campaign signs for U.S. President Donald Trump and presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden are seen on Election Day in Cherryville, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 3, 2020. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski/File PhotoShow less

As the polls closed and US election workers began counting millions of ballots, voters and non-voters turned their attention to clearing up any confusion they might have about how the country elects a president.

Here's a look at how people were searching about the topic online.

What is the electoral college?

According to Alphabet, Google's parent company, searches for “How does the electoral college work?", "What is the electoral college?", and "Why do we have the electoral college?” surged after the polls closed.

How many electoral votes in …?

In the US, 270 electoral votes are required to win the presidency and each state awards a specific number of such votes, depending on state populations, to pick the president.

The system has proved controversial in recent years, with Al Gore and Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college and therefore failing to take the White House.

In this election cycle, it proved to be equally interesting to people in terms of internet searches.

Google noted ample interest in searches for how many electoral votes each state was worth, with a lot of curiosity about Nevada, Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

What about a tie?

As both Mr Biden and Mr Trump initially failed to reach the required 270 electoral votes, there were several questions that crossed the minds of many.

Google indicated there appeared to be some concern about what would happen if neither candidate got to 270 electoral votes.

The search giant also said people were very curious about what would happen in the event of an electoral college tie.

If a tie were to happen, it should be noted that the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democratic Party, would be given the job of choosing the next president.

When will Pennsylvania be called?

With our society's need for instant gratification, it seems many voters were impatient to find out why certain states were taking so long to count votes.

Searches such as “When will Pennsylvania be called?” and “When will Michigan be called?” surged 1,600 per cent, according to Google.

There also seemed to be some surprise and curiosity as to how Joe Biden managed to win Virginia so quickly, with searches for “How did Biden win Virginia?” rising significantly.

Global interest

The search surges were not unique to the US. Google indicated there was global interest and possible anxiety about the US election results, with a 5,000 per cent rise in searches for “live election results” in the past 24 hours.

Outside the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand appeared to show the most interest in terms of searches.

Puerto Rico showed the most search intensity for the topic.