False: Can’t vote in Florida because the voter file is down

Voter lookup tools went down. The voter rolls did not, and early voting continues.

The rumor: False “Can’t vote in Florida because the voter file is down”

The facts: At 10 a.m. ET on Oct. 21, VR Systems, the Tallahassee vendor that hosts county Supervisor of Elections websites, took public-facing tools offline after the PHP Foundation disclosed critical security flaws in PHP, the programming language behind much of the web. Affected tools include voter lookup, sample ballots, and polling place finders. VR Systems says the outage does not affect the ability to vote or the voter rolls. Sarasota and Jefferson counties confirm their tools are down, and Jefferson says early voting runs Oct. 19 to 31, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The state registration status tool appeared to still be working. No restoration time has been given, and no report so far describes a breach of voter data. Voters who need their polling place or sample ballot can call their county Supervisor of Elections office.