Ask HN: Does Google manually alter search results?

This has been a topic that has come up in the news and congress etc, but I haven’t seen a straight answer anywhere.

My question is - does Google have manual tools for changing the priority of where specific urls appear in the search results?

I’m not talking about statistical inputs from quality raters etc, and I’m not particularly wanting to discuss what policies govern the use of such tools.

I just want to know if they have the mechanism or not.

Can anyone, Googler or not, shed light on this?