For Immediate Release
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Contact: Mark Ard
850-245-6522
[email protected]
Public Notice: Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee Provides Update about Voter Registration in Florida
Tallahassee, Fla. –
Today, following a meeting with Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee issued a directive to re-open Florida’s voter registration deadline to participate in the November 3rd General Election before 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time for applications submitted online, and by 7:00 p.m. local time for in-person registration, today, October 6th.
“This morning I met with Governor DeSantis to brief him on the status of the online voter registration system and the difficulties we encountered last night due to unprecedented volume and traffic to our website. 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 submit a voter registration application by 7:00 p.m. this evening,” said Secretary Laurel M. Lee. “During the last few hours, the RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov website was accessed by an unprecedented 1.1 million requests per hour. We will work with our state and federal law-enforcement partners to ensure this was not a deliberate act against the voting process.”
Potential voter registrants should know that any applications received on Florida’s Online Voter Registration system today, October 6, 2020, will be included in the registration for the November 3, 2020, General Election. Additionally, any applications received through the following channels TODAY will also be accepted:
- County Supervisors of Elections Offices
- Local Tax Collector’s Offices
- Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles’ Driver’s License Offices
- Paper applications postmarked by today, October 6, 2020
Governor DeSantis and Secretary Lee will be working with these offices to discuss the availability of extending their office hours today to further assist potential voter registrants.
“Last night, we experienced an extremely high volume of traffic to the Online Voter Registration System,” said Secretary Lee. “If you are NOT registering to vote, we ask that you do your part for your fellow Floridians and please do not try to access RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov during this time and drive up traffic to the site.”
If you have any questions, please reach out to the Division of Elections’ Voter Assistance Hotline at 1.866.308.6739 (in English and Español). If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the Division using the Florida Relay Service, 1.800.955.8771 (TDD), 1.800.955.8770 (Voice), or 1.877.955.8773 (Español).
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About the Florida Division of Elections. The Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections supports the Secretary of State, Florida’s Chief Election Officer, in ensuring that Florida has fair and accurate elections. The Division’s three bureaus; the Bureau of Election Records, Bureau of Voter Registration Services, and Bureau of Voting Systems Certification, have several responsibilities in the areas of legal compliance and elections administration to ensure that Florida’s election laws are uniformly interpreted and implemented. The Division also assists local Supervisors of Elections in their duties and promotes enhanced public awareness and participation in the electoral process. For more information about Florida’s elections, visit dos.myflorida.com/elections/.