FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2018
TALLAHASSEE–All Voting is Local today sent a letter to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner urging his office to make public its plan for preventing and resolving potential problems with the state’s online voter registration system.
The letter comes after the Secretary of State’s office failed to answer public records requests about the security and stability of the online system. In addition, the letter references website technical glitches in July that prevented people from completing online registrations in advance of the statewide primary election. If problems persist, the letter asks state officials to extend the voter registration beyond the current Oct. 9 deadline.
“Florida’s online voter registration system saves taxpayer money, makes voter rolls more accurate, and can increase voter engagement,” said Dan Horton, Florida State Director of All Voting is Local. “Record turnout in Florida’s primary indicates voters are motivated and eager to be registered and have their voices heard. We encourage the Secretary of State to take steps now to avoid the problems voters in other states have confronted close to registration deadlines — and that came up in our state earlier this summer.”
In 2016, Virginia’s online voter registration system crashed the same day as the state’s registration deadline, prompting a federal lawsuit and a court-ordered registration deadline extension. This summer in Maryland, the state’s voter registration website had a technical glitch on the last day voters could register before the primary.
The letter to the Secretary of State seeks responses to the following questions:
- What steps have been taken to resolve the technical problems with the online voter registration website since July?
- What progress has been made to ensure that similar technical problems will not prevent voters from registering in advance of the approaching registration deadline this October?
- What actions have been taken to ensure that the website has the capacity to handle a high volume of registrations in the days before the deadline?
- What procedures are in place to deal with any issues that may arise with the website? Will the Secretary of State’s office commit to extending the registration deadline in the event of any unanticipated problems?
The letter can be read in its entirety here.
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All Voting is Local fights for the right to vote through a unique combination of data-driven organizing, advocacy and communications. It is a collaborative campaign housed at The Leadership Conference Education Fund, in conjunction with Access Democracy; the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation; the American Constitution Society; the Campaign Legal Center; and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.