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Florida’s observe file on voting rights isn’t nice, and Monday night time offered one other instance for why that’s. The state’s voter registration web site crashed for a number of hours simply earlier than the deadline to vote within the common election. Whereas the state has reopened voter registrations for a day to compensate for the hours missed throughout the crash, activists are suing the state for extra time.
Florida has one of many earliest voter registration deadlines within the nation: October 5 by 11:59 pm. Florida’s voter registration web site, RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov — the state has requested individuals to not go to the positioning except they’re really making an attempt to register to vote, to keep away from the site visitors points it had the night time earlier than — crashed within the hours previous that deadline, stopping many Floridians from having the ability to register. The state prolonged the voter registration deadline to October 6 by 7 pm. Potential voters have till then to register on-line or in particular person, and mailed functions should be postmarked by October 6.
In response to an announcement from Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee, the positioning had “an unprecedented 1.1 million request per hour,” and the big quantity triggered the crash. Lee added that her workplace can be “working with our state and federal legislation enforcement companions to make sure this was not a deliberate act towards the voting course of,” however didn’t present particulars on what led them to suspect this is likely to be the case (Lee didn’t return a request for remark).
Through the crash, Lee’s tweets indicated that the interruption was transient and had been fastened by 6 pm, however a number of responses to these tweets stated this was not the case. Individuals complained that that they had been making an attempt for hours to register, and a Florida state consultant tweeted simply earlier than 10 pm that the positioning nonetheless didn’t work. In response to the Orlando Sentinel, the 7 pm deadline, introduced at midday, was chosen to match what number of hours the system was down.
This isn’t the primary time a Florida authorities web site has crashed on the time it’s most wanted. The state’s unemployment web site, overwhelmed by the surge in site visitors, was notoriously glitchy within the first months of the pandemic, leaving many Floridians unable to use for advantages or having to attend weeks to take action. Although a current audit had discovered a whole bunch of system errors, no motion was taken to repair them earlier than the pandemic.
This isn’t even the primary time Florida’s voter registration web site has failed. The Florida Democratic Get together accused the state’s Republican leaders of “blatant voter suppression” and pointed to web site crashes earlier than the 2020 primaries, a routine upkeep downtime the weekend earlier than Nationwide Voter Registration Day in 2019, and website glitches just a few days earlier than the final election deadline in 2018. The Florida department of the American Civil Liberties Union additionally famous that the web site has a historical past of crashes that, it stated, the state has made no effort to restore.
It’s additionally not the primary time Florida has been accused of disenfranchisement. Till not too long ago, the state restricted anybody convicted of a felony from voting, even after they’d completed their sentence. This barred as many as 1.four million individuals — 10 % of the state’s inhabitants — from the suitable to vote within the state, and disproportionately affected Black individuals. In 2018, an modification to the state’s structure to revive voting rights to ex-felons gained the favored vote, just for the Republican-led legislature to move a legislation that required ex-felons to pay any monetary penalties from their convictions earlier than they may very well be allowed to vote. Activists have scrambled to assist ex-felons pay these penalties and reenfranchise as a lot of them as attainable. The state’s legal professional common has referred to as for an investigation into that effort, citing “potential violations of election legal guidelines.”
Florida does, a minimum of, make it comparatively straightforward to vote by mail. Voters don’t want to supply an excuse once they request their poll, they’re able to observe their poll as soon as they mail it again, and if their poll is rejected, they should be advised and given the chance to repair the poll so it may be counted. That stated, Florida additionally has a historical past of rejecting an extreme variety of mail-in ballots.
There’s a likelihood the registration deadline may very well be prolonged additional: A number of state voting rights teams are suing Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lee to increase the registration deadline by two extra days, saying the state had loads of time and warning to adequately put together the web site to deal with anticipated elevated site visitors, however didn’t accomplish that. The 7 pm deadline extension, one of many attorneys for the plaintiffs stated, was “not ok.”
The prolonged deadline is sweet information for Floridians who have been locked out of registering on Monday night time, however a dependable web site, that’s free from glitches and crashes and may deal with a considerable amount of site visitors, can be even higher.
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