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By Chloe Mayer
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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.
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 Newsweek that some websites had begun experiencing outages last week. It added that there was "no indication of malicious activity," such as an attack 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.
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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.
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It is unclear whether the latest issues are connected to the problems that occurred over the summer. Voting itself remained unaffected, but some county websites were unable to provide any information for would-be voters and instead displayed error messages. Other counties—such as Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas—posted backup versions of their sites online so residents could access basic information about polling sites and how to check voter details.
Joe Scott, Broward County's supervisor of elections, told the Tampa Bay Times that he thought it was possible the problems were related to the issues seen in August. But VR Systems said it had since brought in outside experts and "implemented significant changes."
The company added in a statement provided to Newsweek on Tuesday: "Our customers began experiencing intermittent outages of their websites last week. First and foremost, the ability to cast a ballot and have your vote counted is not impacted by the website outages. There is no indication of malicious activity.
"While we work to resolve this, we've posted a static web page that automatically populates for each Supervisor of Elections experiencing outages. These web pages are at the same website address and include links to the most critical services voters in those counties rely on.
"We immediately began investigating the cause and the extent of this issue and remain in communication with Florida Supervisors of Elections. We have engaged external experts and have implemented significant changes since the primary election. Our state and federal partners are involved in assisting with the investigation and identifying potential resolutions."
Wesley Wilcox, Marion County's supervisor of elections, told Fox 35 Orlando that early voting appeared to have a heavy turnout so far. "All my early voting sites opened at 8 a.m., and there were people in line at every one of them," he said.
On its company website, VR Systems said, "Elections are all we do," adding, "We design technology to support modern elections." The company's products are used in Florida, Illinois, and Washington, D.C.
The crashes occurred just two weeks before Election Day on November 5, amid a presidential campaign marked by dramatic events.
In July, President Joe Biden dropped out of the race after members of his party expressed concerns about his health and cognitive abilities, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris to assume his role at the top of the Democratic ticket.
That same month, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee—who, in May, became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of felony crimes and continues to battle legal woes—was injured during an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. In September, while at his golf club in Florida, he was also the target of a second assassination attempt.
Pundits say the election remains too close to call, as the race shapes up to be one of the closest in U.S. history.
Update 10/22/24, 11:12 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a statement from VR Systems.
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