佛罗里达州国务卿星期二发布指令，重新开放该州的选民登记窗口，直到晚上7点进行登记。
这一决定是在全州选民遇到注册网站问题几小时后做出的，registertovoteflorida.gov周一，随着时间一分一秒地接近最初的截止日期。
美国国务卿劳雷尔·李(Laurel Lee)在周二下午发布的一份公告中表示:“我们正在与当地选举监督员和佛罗里达州公路安全和机动车辆部合作，以确保所有合格的登记者能够在今晚7点前提交选民登记申请。”
据李说，在午夜截止日期前的最后几个小时，该网站每小时被超过100万个请求淹没。
“我们将与我们的州和联邦执法合作伙伴合作，以确保这不是一个故意违反投票程序的行为，”她补充说。
就在周一下午6点之前，李在推特上宣布，该网站的功能已经恢复，并且“大量”的访问者导致了大约15分钟的延迟。
OVR在网上工作。由于高容量，大约15分钟内，一些用户在尝试注册时遇到延迟。我们增加了产能。你可以注册到今晚午夜。
感谢那些立即引起我们注意的人。
— Laurel M. Lee (@FLSecofState)2020年10月5日
然而，在该声明发布几个小时后，该网站仍然让人们感到不适。
已经注册的圣克劳德高中毕业生Destinee Morin周一花了大部分时间刷新网站，试图帮助注册两个朋友，都是青少年和准青少年，但没有成功首次投票者。
莫兰说她从下午开始就有问题。
“如果网站瘫痪了，那就不公平了。很多人今天去了那个网站，因为他们没有意识到这是他们注册的最后一天，”她周一说。“我真的希望他们延长。”
2020年8月18日，佛罗里达州坦帕市321选区，一名选民在佛罗里达州初选投票后离开投票站。
23岁的盖恩斯维尔居民卡尔·莫雷利(Carl)在8月份搬进新公寓后，希望更新自己的注册信息。周一晚上9点15分，他第一次尝试了这个网站，但在完成第一步后，遇到了一些小问题。在切换网络浏览器甚至电脑两个多小时后，他几乎放弃了。
“比赛进行到最后10分钟，我准备认输，但我说，‘让我再试几次，’”他告诉美国广播公司新闻。
晚上11点55分，他成功注册。
“我真的很高兴和兴奋，我将能够投票，”他说。
其他人就没那么幸运了。
西棕榈滩棕榈滩大西洋大学20岁的学生凯尔·热度拉(Kyle Redula)渴望第一次注册投票，却发现自己周一在网站上挣扎了几个小时。截止日期来了又去，他仍然收到错误消息。
“这绝对是我所期待的，”他告诉美国广播公司新闻。“考虑到这是国务院的网站，它一直给我带来问题，这令人沮丧。”
Redula在周二下午下课后再次尝试该网站，并成功注册。
“进展顺利，”他在一篇文章中写道。“没有任何问题。”
该网站的问题在推特上引起了该州民主党人的愤怒回应，其中包括佛罗里达州农业和消费者服务专员尼基·弗里德(Nikki Fried)和佛罗里达州唯一的全州当选民主党人。
“选民登记截止日期只有几个小时了，网上选民登记网站坏了，”她写道。弗里德在向共和党州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)发表讲话时，称这种情况“不可接受”，并敦促他“解决它”。
在随后的一篇文章中，弗里德写道，周一晚上的事态发展相当于“选民压制”，并呼吁李和德桑蒂斯延长登记截止日期。
不计划选民登记激增就是压制选民。
不保证每个想登记的人都能登记，就是压制选民。
不延长截止日期就是压制选民。@GovRonDeSantis&@FLSecofState，你必须延长期限。https://t.co/AjJul6VZhV
— Nikki Fried (@nikkifried)2020年10月6日
周二宣布延期后，一个投票权团体联盟对州长和国务卿提起诉讼，要求将最后期限再延长两天。
该组织包括新佛罗里达多数党、梦想捍卫者和组织佛罗里达，在一份新闻稿中写道，新的窗口“根本没有足够的时间让投票权组织重新吸引拉票者和志愿者，并教育选民他们可以尝试再次在线注册。”
该诉讼将由美国佛罗里达州北部地区法院的一名法官审理。
另一个民权组织团体周一晚上致函国务院，要求将截止日期延长至周二午夜。这封由律师委员会的朱莉·豪克(Julile Houk)签署的信威胁说，如果他们的要求得不到满足，他们将采取“其他法律补救措施”。
周二宣布延期后，组织之一的竞选法律中心的一名代表告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们“仍在讨论立即采取行动”。
该代表、法律顾问兼“恢复你的投票”经理布莱尔·鲍伊(Blair Bowie)说，对于那些因“工作、学校或其他责任”而无法打开窗户的人来说，7小时的时间表“不够”。
鲍伊说:“与此同时，这是重要的一步，将使许多合格的佛罗里达人今天注册，并在11月有发言权。”。
将截止日期延长至周二晚上的决定得到了该州共和党人的支持。佛罗里达州共和党主席乔·格鲁特斯在一篇短信中告诉美国广播公司新闻，这是“正确的选择”。
After voter registration website debacle, state extends deadline
Florida's secretary of state issued a directive Tuesday to reopen the state's voter registration window until 7 p.m. to register.
The decision came hours after voters across the state encountered problems with the registration website,registertovoteflorida.gov, as the clock ticked toward the initial deadline on Monday.
"We are working with local Supervisors of Elections and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to ensure that all eligible registrants have the ability to submit a voter registration application by 7:00 pm this evening," Secretary of State Laurel Lee said in a public notice released Tuesday afternoon.
According to Lee, the website was inundated with over a million requests per hour in the final hours before the midnight deadline.
"We will work with our state and federal law-enforcement partners to ensure this was not a deliberate act against the voting process," she added.
Just before 6 p.m. Monday, Lee announced on Twitter that the website's functions had been restored and that a "high volume" of visitors caused delays for about 15 minutes.
OVR is online and working. Due to high volume, for about 15 minutes, some users experienced delays while trying to register. We have increased capacity. You can register until midnight tonight.
Thank you to those who immediately brought this to our attention.
— Laurel M. Lee (@FLSecofState)October 5, 2020
Hours after that announcement, however, the website was still giving people fits.
Destinee Morin, a recent high school graduate from St. Cloud, who is already registered, spent much of Monday unsuccessfully refreshing the website in an attempt to help register two friends, both of them teenagers and would-befirst-time voters.
Morin said she had problems since mid-afternoon.
"If the website is down, that's not fair. A lot of people went on that website today because they didn't realize it was their last day to register," she said Monday. "I really hope they extend it."
A voter exits the polling precinct after casting their ballot in Florida's primary election at Precinct 321 on Aug. 18, 2020 in Tampa, Fla.
Carl Morelli, a 23-year old Gainesville resident looking to update his registration after moving to a new apartment in August, tried the website for the first time at 9:15 p.m. Monday but was met with glitches after completing the first step. After more than two hours of switching internet browsers and even computers, he almost gave up.
"It was getting down to the last 10 minutes and I was about ready to throw in the towel, but I said, 'Let me just give it a few more tries,'" he told ABC News.
At 11:55 p.m., he successfully registered.
"I was really happy and excited that I was going to be able to vote," he said.
Others weren't so lucky.
Kyle Redula, 20, a student at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, was eager to register to vote for the first time, only to find himself struggling for hours with the website Monday. As the deadline came and went, he was still receiving error messages.
"It's definitely something that I was looking forward to," he told ABC News. "Considering this is the Department of State website and it's been giving me problems, it's been frustrating."
Redula tried the website again Tuesday afternoon after his classes and was able to successfully register.
"It went smoothly," he wrote in a text. "No problems whatsoever."
The issues with the website prompted angry responses on Twitter from Democrats in the state, among them Nikki Fried, Florida's commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, and Florida's lone statewide elected Democrat.
"The voter registration deadline is just hours away, and the online voter registration website is broken," she wrote. Addressing Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, Fried called the situation "unacceptable" and urged him to "fix it."
In a later post, Fried wrote that the developments Monday night amounted to "voter suppression" and called on Lee and DeSantis to extend the registration deadline.
Not planning for a voter registration surge is voter suppression.
Not ensuring everyone who wants to register can do so is voter suppression.
Not extending the deadline is voter suppression.@GovRonDeSantis&@FLSecofState, you must extend the deadline.https://t.co/AjJul6VZhV
— Nikki Fried (@nikkifried)October 6, 2020
After the announcement of the extension on Tuesday, a coalition of voting rights groups filed a lawsuit against the governor and secretary of state, calling for the deadline to be extended an additional two days.
The group, which includes New Florida Majority, Dream Defenders and Organize Florida, wrote in a press release that the new window "is simply not enough time for voting rights groups to re-engage canvassers and volunteers and to educate voters that they can try to register online again."
The lawsuit will go before a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Another group civil rights organizations sent a letter to the Department of State Monday night demanding that the deadline be extended until midnight Tuesday. The letter, signed by Julile Houk of the Lawyers' Committee, threatened "other legal remedies" if their demand was not met.
After the extension was announced Tuesday, a representative from Campaign Legal Center, one of the organizations, told ABC News that they are "still discussing immediate action."
The seven-hour timeline is "not enough" for people who can't make the window because of "work, school, or other responsibilities," said the representative, Blair Bowie, legal counsel and Restore Your Vote manager.
"At the same time, this was an important step and will allow many eligible Floridians to register today and have a voice in November," Bowie said.
The decision to extend the deadline to Tuesday evening drew support from Republicans in the state. Joe Gruters, chair of the Florida GOP, told ABC News in a text that it was "the right call."
