Early voting begins in Central Florida with a few counties experiencing issues

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Published  October 21, 2024 10:56pm EDT
FOX 35 Orlando
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Early voting begins in Central Florida

Early voting began Monday in several counties in Central Florida.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The first day of early voting in Central Florida was marked by technical issues, as some county election websites crashed, sparking concerns about potential problems on Election Day.

"It’s a terrible inconvenience to our voters, and we hate that like crazy," said Alan Hays, Lake County Supervisor of Elections.

The crashes were attributed to issues with the website host, VR Systems, which serves both Lake and Marion counties. The outages occurred on Monday amid heavy early voting turnout.

"All my early voting sites opened at 8 a.m., and there were people in line at every one of them," said Wesley Wilcox, Marion County Supervisor of Elections.

VR Systems addressed the outages in a statement, assuring the public that voting was not affected. "There is no indication of malicious activity, and the ability to cast a ballot and have your vote counted is not impacted by the website outages."

Hays emphasized, "This has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the tabulation system."

By the end of Monday, the website issues were resolved, though VR Systems is still investigating the cause. Some election offices are considering switching to self-hosted websites, following Volusia County's example.

Volusia County’s first day of early voting went smoothly. "I have no room to complain at all," said Lisa Lewis, Volusia County Supervisor of Elections, expressing confidence that their website is prepared for a large turnout on Election Day.

"People are excited about this election, which we’re happy to see," Lewis added.

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Central Florida's largest county did not experience any technical glitches as it set a new record for the first day of early voting. 

Orange County Supervisor of Elections Glen Gilzean said more than 18,150  voters showed up to one of the county’s 22 early voting locations to cast their ballot. The county’s previous record was set in the 2020 November General Election when 16,781 Orange County voters cast their ballot on the first day of early voting.

"Our team has been working overtime to prepare for today as we head into this monumental election," said Gilzean. "By adding two more early voting locations there are more ways than ever for Orange County voters to make their voices heard."

Early voting in Orange County runs through Sunday, November 3, with each of the county’s 22 early voting locations open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.  For a list of early voting dates and times in other Central Florida counties, see our early voting guide here.

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