ORLANDO, Fla. – UPDATE: The website appeared to be back up again shortly before 10 p.m. Monday but users still reported glitches while trying to complete the registration process.
Original story below:
On the last day that Floridians have to register to vote for the November election, the state’s voter registration website has crashed.
A message on RegistertoVoteFlorida.gov at 8:30 p.m. Monday reads, “Web server is returning an unknown error.”
The page advises visitors to try again in a few minutes to see if the error is corrected.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t addressed the crash on social media but Florida’s Secretary of State Laurel Lee tweeted shortly before 6 p.m. that the problem was due to a high volume of users on the site.
“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,” she wrote.
Since then, more users have complained of issues but Lee’s social media has been quiet.
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Among the responses are some asking that the deadline to register be extended.
“The site has been down for hours. Do the right thing and extend the deadline through tomorrow at noon. Increase capacity again, as people are still having issues. Anything else is voter suppression,” one woman tweeted.
In Central Florida, election officials said Monday that they saw a rush of residents who wanted to make sure they were registered in time to have a say in the upcoming presidential election.
Check back for more updates on this developing story.