TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida’s voter registration website appeared to experience some issues on Monday, just hours before the deadline for Floridians to register to vote in the November election.
Florida residents who want to vote in the Nov. 3 election only have until midnight on Oct. 5. Just before 6 p.m., the site appeared to be down for some users.
Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee said on Twitter it was because so many people were trying to log on.
“Due to high volume, for about 15 minutes, some users experienced delays while trying to register,” she wrote. “We have increased capacity. You can register until midnight tonight. Thank you to those who immediately brought this to our attention.”
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.
Thank you to those who immediately brought this to our attention.— Laurel M. Lee (@FLSecofState) October 5, 2020
A handful of Twitter users reported not being able to access the website during that time period. When staff members at 8 On Your Side tried to visit the site, we were given a 502 server error.
“There is a problem with the page you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed,” the message read.
“When the Web server (while acting as a gateway or proxy) contacted the upstream content server, it received an invalid response from the content server.”
8 On Your Side also received emails claiming that the process to register turned into a “multi-hour experience” on Monday.
Complaints are starting to roll into the @WFLA newsroom about the FL voter registration site crashing. Today is the deadline.
I personally can’t get the site to load on my computer. Let us know if you see issues too! #voting #flvotes pic.twitter.com/i1aa29nsIp
— victoria price (@WFLAVictoria) October 5, 2020
State Rep. Anna Eskamani noted on Twitter that while she was able to access the site using Chrome, it “definitely seems like the website is being glitchy.”
For those registering to vote online before tonights 11:59pm deadline, it definitely seems like the website is being glitchy.
Here’s the link: https://t.co/FFdoUNnF2T
Try it in Chrome if you can, seems to work fine there for me. https://t.co/cy9XAFLkPU
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) October 5, 2020
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the lone Democrat in the Florida Cabinet, tweeted about the issues and called them “unacceptable.”
“This is unacceptable @GovRonDeSantis,” she said. “Fix it now.”
