Virginia Voter Registration System Outage: Here’s What We Know

A cut cable has caused the entire voter registration system to be shut down in Virginia as the state enters its last day to register to vote before the Nov. 3 election.

The Virginia Department of Elections posted on its registration website, “Due to a network outage, the Citizen Portal is temporarily unavailable. We are working with our network providers to restore service as quickly as possible.”

The Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA) said in a tweet that the cut cable was a fiber cut near Route 10 in Chester, Virginia. The agency said the cut wire was “impacting data circuits and virtual private network (VPN) connectivity for multiple Commonwealth agencies.”

In an update, the VITA said that its technicians were working on the issue. In a third update, VITA tweeted that the “fiber was inadvertently stuck as part of activities associated with roadside utilities project.”

At the time of writing, both agencies gave no indication when the problem would be fixed.

A fiber cut near Rt. 10 in Chester near the Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center (CESC) is impacting data circuits and virtual private network (VPN) connectivity for multiple Commonwealth agencies.
— VITA (@VITAagency) October 13, 2020

UPDATE: Technicians continue to work diligently on a resolution. The team has learned that the fiber was inadvertently struck as part of activities associated with a roadside utilities project. VITA, @ChesterfieldVa and @Verizon continue to collaborate on service restoration. pic.twitter.com/SgVDvIZjoO
— VITA (@VITAagency) October 13, 2020

Tuesday is the deadline to register to vote in Virginia. Voters need to register online at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, in-person by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and by mail with applications postmarked by Tuesday.

The news of the voter registration system comes as a debate has raged across Republican and Democratic parties whether the U.S.’ current voting system is secure, including mail-in ballots.