In this March 17, 2020 photo, a voter casts their ballot in the Florida Primary Election at the Orange County Election Supervisor’s Office in Orlando, Florida | Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel via AP, file
Florida’s online electoral portal crashed on the last day of registration, prompting Democrats to accuse government Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials are trying to suppress the vote less than a month before polling day
Details: Secretary of State Laurel Lee said the site was briefly shut down on Monday The portal appeared to continue to cause problems and by the early evening it was down again or moving slowly, perhaps overwhelmed by people trying to access it
Lee, in a text message Monday night, said his office believed they had dealt with the crash « right away » but « was now working to see if there was a persistent problem »
Floridians wishing to vote in the November election have until 12 p.m. Tuesday to register, and Republicans and Democrats have been mounting campaigns to urge people to register With President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden on ballot, turnout expected to be high in Battlefield State
Democrats are wary of the timing of the crash, noting that the system has experienced problems in the past when demand is high
« This is just the latest attempt by Florida Republican leaders to limit democracy, » Florida Democratic Party Chairman Terrie Rizzo said in a statement « Florida voter registration website not working on last day to register to vote in Florida blatantly suppressing voters Fix the website, stop the deletion and let democracy work «
History: State lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in 2015 to implement an online registration system despite opposition from then Secretary of State Ken Detzner, a Republican, and the portal was launched in 2017
In 2020, nearly 213,000 Floridians to date have used the portal to register to vote, putting site traffic just behind the State Department of Road Safety and Motor Vehicles, which administers driving licenses Florida has over 14 million active registered voters
The system ran into problems before Monday Potential voters had issues accessing the site in March And in 2019 the site was taken offline for maintenance just before National Voter Registration Day, which drew heavy criticism from Democrats of the day
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