Florida's voter information web page crashes on the morning of Election Day

An online tool that allows Florida residents to check their voter registration status appeared to have crashed on the morning of Election Day.

Political social media accounts in Florida quickly responded with comments, with some posting photos of the error message on the State Department’s “Voter Information Lookup” page.

“An error has occurred. Please try again,” it said.

The page still returned an error message when an editor tried to check his own data shortly after noon on Tuesday.

In a post on If you would like to make an address change at your polling station, please note that this may take longer than normal due to the disruption.”

Mark Ard, a spokesman for the Department of State, which oversees the state Elections Department, later emailed a statement to the news media saying that “voting operations have not been affected in any way” and that “the websites of the County Supervisor of Elections are still available for any voter to look up their registration status.”

What Ard described as the “state’s courtesy website” is seeing record numbers of visitors, he said. “Any voter who has difficulty using the state courtesy lookup web page should go to the state courtesy lookup web page for the same service.”

Still, the outage sparked outrage from groups like the ACLU of Florida and Common Cause Florida.

“On the last day to vote in the 2024 general election, the Florida Division of Elections voter lookup tool is offline,” the ACLU of Florida said in a statement to the news media.

“…Thousands of voters are looking up their voter information and planning where to vote – this is a delay that is interrupting their ability to cast their ballots,” it added. “With hours to go before the polls close, we must ensure that every eligible voter in Florida can participate in the democratic process.”

A disclaimer on the page says in part: “This website is intended for use by a registered voter to determine his or her voter registration and voting status. It is unlawful to knowingly alter another person’s voter registration information or to attempt, to assist in this or otherwise commit fraud in connection with voting rights.”

Earlier Tuesday, before the page went online, Secretary of State Cord Byrd expressed confidence that the general election would proceed smoothly.

“Florida is the gold standard for election administration,” Byrd told reporters in Tallahassee. “When Florida voters go to the polls, they know their vote will be counted accurately, and that it will be counted on time. They can trust the results. I think you’ll see the results in Florida tonight before you go to bed.

Polls in Florida opened at 7 a.m. local time and are expected to close at 7 p.m. local time. The state won’t start publishing results until 8 p.m. Eastern time, when polls close in the Panhandle, which is Central time.

Floridians vote in numerous races, including for president, a seat in the U.S. Senate, seats in Congress and the Legislature, and a wide variety of local offices. Voters will also decide the fate of six proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution.

“We have a cybersecurity team, so we are prepared for any kind of election interference,” Byrd said.

This is now the second system failure during a statewide election. On Florida’s primary election day in August, the websites of several election supervisors crashed after the company that powers the sites said they were under “extraordinary stress.”

This is a developing news story and may be updated. Check back later for more information.

The News Service of Florida contributed. Jim Rosica can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @JimRosicaFL.