The state of Florida has extended the voter registration deadline after a series of errors and glitches hit RegisterToVoteFlorida.org Monday night.
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee announced today that the window to register will now be extended to 7 p.m. today for both online applications and in-person registration.
“This morning I met with Governor DeSantis to brief him on the status of the online voter registration system and the difficulties we encountered last night due to unprecedented volume and traffic to our website. We are working with local Supervisors of Elections and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to ensure that all eligible registrants have the ability to submit a voter registration application by 7:00 p.m. this evening,” said Secretary Laurel M. Lee in a statement.
The announcement comes after Florida residents attempting to register for the election were met with a series of error messages ahead of yesterday's midnight deadline.
Lee also said her department is working with federal and state law enforcement to determine whether the errors were an honest mistake or an attack on the system. Although users reported problems throughout the night, Lee tweeted that the problems only lasted 15 minutes.
“OVR is online and working. Due to high volume, for about 15 minutes, some users experienced delays while trying to register. We have increased capacity. You can register until midnight tonight,” said Lee. “Thank you to those who immediately brought this to our attention.”
It's worth noting that the voter registration website also crashed on the last day to register in 2018, as well on National Voter Registration Day in 2019.
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This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2020.