Florida Election Office Sites Crash on First Day of Voting

Source: Newsweek

Published Oct 22, 2024 at 7:57 AM EDT


In-person voting began early in some Florida counties this week, but a slew of election websites containing vital information about when and where to vote crashed across the state on Monday.

Though the websites were back up and running by the end of the day, Fox 35 Orlando reported, an investigation is underway into what caused the outages—with heavy user traffic being one possibility. VR Systems, the election-specialist tech firm in Tallahassee that hosts the sites, told the Tampa Bay Times that some websites had begun experiencing outages last week. It added that there was "no indication of malicious activity," such as a cyberattack by hackers.

In August, a similar issue plagued Florida's county elections. At the time, there were fears of a targeted cyberattack, with Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd refusing to rule it out while an investigation was ongoing.

VR Systems later took full responsibility for the glitches, but the Associated Press reported that the firm "refused to answer questions" about the scale of the problem and how it could ensure the issue—which had occurred during a low-turnout primary—didn't repeat months later when large numbers of residents would seek information before voting in the presidential election.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/florida-election-website-voting-crashes-down-outages-1972761