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Virginia's Voter Registration Deadline Extended After System Crash On What Would've Been Final Day For Registration

State politicians endorsed action from the court to extend the voter registration deadline.

October 14, 2020 at 12:04 am

After an unintentionally cut wire was blamed for causing Virginia's voter registration website to go down on Tuesday, officials in the state have extended its registration deadline to Thursday, NBC Washington reports.

Prior to the site crash and the extension order by U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. on Wednesday, Tuesday would have been the final day local voters had to register for the upcoming election.

According to The Hill, the Virginia Department of Elections announced it was alerted to a cut fiber wire that was affecting data circuits and VPN access for several agencies Tuesday morning, including those that worked with the citizen platform.

The Virginia Information Technology Agency tweeted that a fiber that was cut near Chester, Virginia was to blame for the website crash, WUSA 9 reports.

This morning we were alerted by VITA that a fiber cut near the Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center was impacting data circuits and VPN connectivity for multiple agencies. This has affected the citizen portal along w/ registrar’s offices.

— VA Dept of Elections (@vaELECT) October 13, 2020

In a statement, VITA said, "Technicians learned that a Verizon fiber had been inadvertently struck as part of activities related to a Chesterfield County roadside utilities project, located off of Route 10 in Chester, Virginia."

At 11 a.m., election officials released a tweet confirming that technicians were on site to repair the issue, but there was no estimate given on how long any repairs would take.

Around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the election department announced from its Twitter page that the registration platform was up and functioning.

Thank you everyone for your patience! The citizen portal is back up, you can go to https://t.co/8vK06RBLHl to register to vote, update information or check your registration status.

— VA Dept of Elections (@vaELECT) October 13, 2020

Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has requested the voter registration deadline be extended because of the extreme circumstance.

“I am officially calling for Virginia’s Registration Deadline to be extended beyond today due to the service outages impacting voters’ ability to register statewide,” he tweeted. “We will work with the Administration to resolve this issue and ensure all voters have access to #Vote.”

I am officially calling for Virginia’s Registration Deadline to be extended beyond today due to the service outages impacting voters’ ability to register statewide.

We will work with the Administration to resolve this issue and ensure all voters have access to #Vote. https://t.co/PKt3vKoOnu

— Justin Fairfax (@LGJustinFairfax) October 13, 2020

Gibney, Jr. said the crashing of the website caused "tremendous harm" to constituents.

Four years ago, Virginia voting systems also crashed the deadline day of voter registration. According to The Washington Post, a judge ruled that the state had to extend its registration deadline in October 2016, following a suit from prominent civil rights groups.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law President Kristen Clarke criticized Virginia election officials over Tuesday’s website gaffe.

“Election officials in Virginia have again failed the public. The state’s online voter registration portal has crashed on the eve of the registration deadline, leaving thousands of eligible people in the dark. This error is particularly astounding given that this same problem occurred at virtually the same time in 2016,” she said in a statement.

You can check the voter registration deadlines in your state here.