By james art 
Florida Elections 2024: 6 Amendments on the Nov. 5 Ballot
Six constitutional amendments, including recreational marijuana and abortion access, will be on Florida’s ballot for the November 5, 2024 general election.
An online tool that allows Florida residents to check their voter registration status appears to have crashed the morning of Election Day.
Florida political-related social media accounts quickly lit up with reaction, with some posting photos of the error message on the State Department’s Voter Information Search page.
“An error occurred. Please try again,” it says.
The page was still returning an error message when an editor tried to verify his own information shortly after noon on Tuesday.
In a post on X that has since been deleted, Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington said, “The statewide database is down. If you wish to make a change of address at your polling place, please note that this may take longer than usual before the cut-off.”
Mark Ard, a spokesman for the State Department, which oversees the state’s elections division, later emailed a statement to the media that “voting operations were not affected in any way” and “the county supervisor of elections websites are still operational for each voter to check their registration status.”
What Ard described as “the state’s courtesy website is experiencing record traffic,” he said. “Any voter who has difficulty using the web page to search for a state service should go to their county’s SOE page for the same service.”
Regardless, the outage drew 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 Department of Elections’ voter lookup tool was down,” the ACLU of Florida said in a statement sent to the media.
“…Thousands of voters are searching for their voter information and planning where to vote – a delay that interrupts their ability to vote,” it added. “With hours to go until the polls close, we must ensure that every eligible voter in Florida can participate in the democratic process.”
A disclaimer on the page reads 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, assist, or otherwise commit voting fraud.”
Earlier Tuesday, before the page went down, Secretary of State Cord Bird expressed confidence that the general election would go smoothly.
“Florida is the gold standard for election administration,” Byrd told reporters in Tallahassee. “When voters go to the polls in Florida, they know their vote will be counted … accurately and it will be counted on time.” They can trust the results. I think you’ll see before you go to bed tonight the results in Florida.
Polls in Florida opened at 7 a.m. local time and are due to close at 7 p.m. local time. The state doesn’t begin releasing results until 8 p.m. ET, 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, congressional and legislative seats, and a wide variety of local offices. Voters will also decide the fate of six proposed amendments to Florida’s constitution.
“We have a cybersecurity team, so we’re prepared for any kind of election interference,” Byrd said.
This is already the second system failure during an election in the state. On Florida’s primary election day in August, multiple election watchdog websites crashed after the company that maintains the sites said they experienced “extreme stress.”
This is a news item in development and may be updated. Check back later for more.
Florida News Service contributed. Jim Rosica can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @JimRosicaFL.