Google Trends data sometimes reveals what people are thinking about, not necessarily what they’ll do. But as a window on politics the data can be interesting, if not instructive. Google searches for “write-in” were up last week by almost 3000% as exasperated voters threw up their digital hands faced with the major party presidential candidates.
Many of the “write in” searches included the names of either Bernie Sanders or Mike Pence, as voters on both the left and the right were still exploring their options beyond the Trump and Clinton. Trump’s disastrous week also amp’d the searches for “Mitt Romney write in” — but mostly in Utah.
