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Florida extends voter registration deadline to 7 p.m. Tuesday

Deadline extended after Florida's online voter registration website crashed on Monday
Posted at 12:25 PM, Oct 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-06 12:51:05-04

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida residents now have a few extra hours to register to vote for the November election.

Secretary of State Laurel Lee announced she's extending the deadline to register to vote until 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The decision came after the RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov website crashed on Monday, which was the final day of voter registration for the Nov. 3 election.

"They're investigating some of the issues, kind of what led to it, but it was an inordinate amount of traffic," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference in The Villages on Tuesday.

WATCH GOVERNOR'S COMMENTS:

Florida extends voter registration deadline to 7 p.m. Tuesday

Lee said the site was accessed "by an unprecedented 1.1 million requests per hour" during the last few hours of registration on Monday.

In a written statement, Lee said, in part:

"We will work with our state and federal law-enforcement partners to ensure this was not a deliberate act against the voting process."

In addition to the RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov website, Lee said you can also register to vote on Tuesday by submitting an application at any county Supervisor of Elections office, any local tax collector’s office, and any Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles' driver’s license office.

DeSantis said the state is asking all of those locations to stay open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Paper applications postmarked by Oct. 6 will also be accepted.

"So providing as many opportunities as possible, and also providing the similar time frame from when we were experiencing difficulties yesterday," DeSantis said.

If you have any questions about the voter registration process, contact the Division of Elections' Voter Assistance Hotline at 1-866-308-6739 for answers in English and Spanish.