VR Systems responsible for Florida county elections website glitch

VR Systems responsible for Florida county elections website glitch is profiled by BTW Media because published evidence links it to internet infrastructure, governance, operational dependencies, or market visibility.

• Florida-based VR Systems Election Technologies took full responsibility for the glitches that prevented many election officials there from immediately announcing the results of the primary on Tuesday night.
• The issue did not affect the way counties report their primary election votes to the state or the state’s ability to provide election updates.

OUR TAKE
While the issue did not affect the process of voting, tabulating and reporting ballots, it did create a series of headaches for counties using VRS. With this in mind, the companies involved should prepare in advance for the possibility of higher viewership by identifying the root cause of the problem and addressing it in a timely manner.
— Iydia Ding, BTW reporter

What happened

Tallahassee, Florida-based VR Systems Election Technology took full responsibility for the glitches that prevented many of the area’s election officials from immediately announcing the results of the primary election on Tuesday night. While the issue did not affect voters or vote counting, there were still unresolved issues on Wednesday.

VR Systems issued a brief statement but declined to answer questions about the breadth of the problem, such as why it wasn’t prepared for a slowed-down or crashed website and how it would address issues that arose during the low-turnout primary. Election night coverage of unofficial results was not affected and there was no indication of malicious activity. The company said an increase in website traffic caused the problem.

The issue did not affect the way counties report primary votes to the state or the state’s ability to provide election updates. However, people who checked their local election websites Tuesday night were unable to access the results. While the problem didn’t affect the process of voting, tabulating and reporting ballots, it did create a series of headaches for counties using the VR system, including some of the state’s largest.

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Why it’s important

“This did not affect our ability to report unofficial results.We did so without delay,” said Gerry Kramer, spokesman for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, which includes Tampa and many of its suburbs. “Our unofficial results are uploaded to the state and shared publicly through social media and at our public canvassing board meetings. In addition, we made sure the media knew where to find the results so they could report them as well.

At this time, VR Systems has not responded with additional details about the outage. As far as the handling of the results is concerned, it demonstrates the excellent responsiveness of the state’s election officials. Regardless of the impact of the outcome of what happened, platforms responsible for similar projects should anticipate and prepare for peak viewing times to aid in the smooth running of elections.