FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2019
TALLAHASSEE– All Voting is Local Florida State Director Brad Ashwell issued the following statement in response to Florida officials’ decision to take the state’s online voter registration system offline for maintenance just days before National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 24.
“Florida officials made a misguided decision to perform maintenance on the state’s online voter registration (OVR) site on the busy weekend leading up to National Voter Registration Day when many organizations hold voter registration drives. As a result, we are deeply concerned the state is unable to handle a large influx of registrants during the 2020 election.”
Last fall, All Voting is Local and dozens of voting rights groups urged then Secretary of State Ken Detzner to extend the voter registration deadline by one week, as Hurricane Michael threatened the Florida coast — just as the OVR site crashed. That letter came after the Secretary of State’s office failed to answer advocates’ public records requests about the security of the online system. Voting rights groups, and the voting public, deserve answers so that every voter can register and cast a ballot that counts.
Ashwell added: “State officials must confront the series of technical barriers keeping Florida from exercising their right to register to vote. The state’s online voter registration system has been long plagued by technical problems – crashing in 2018 on the eve of both the primary and general election deadlines. Florida officials must ensure the state’s online voter registration system is secure, stable, and free from technical glitches that prevented people from completing registrations.”
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All Voting is Local fights to eliminate needless and discriminatory barriers to voting before they happen, to build a democracy that works for us all. It is a collaborative campaign housed at The Leadership Conference Education Fund, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation; the American Constitution Society; the Campaign Legal Center; and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. For more information about All Voting is Local, visit https://allvotingislocal.org and follow us on Twitter @votingislocal.