NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s Secretary of State apologized for his online voter registration website being offline for several hours on National Voter Registration Day. The website was down for routine maintenance from 8 - 11:30 p.m., Tuesday. Secretary Kyle Ardoin, the state’s top election official admitted it was an honest mistake.
“We have done these types of updates before, and we just missed that it was on National Voter Registration Day,” Ardoin said. “I know that’s something that we should not have missed, and I take full responsibility.”
“This is beyond reprehensible” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted.
“Absolute dereliction of duty, at such a critical time for our city and our nation,” Cantrell wrote.
Rep. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans said the site being down was “shameful and pathetic.”
“You try to look for reasons,” Duplessis said. “You try to look for excuses. People are going to make all kind of excuses, but at the end of the day, it’s voter suppression, it’s obvious and it’s brazen.”
Senator Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell says she spoke with Ardoin about what happened. She chairs the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee which has oversight authority over the Secretary of State’s Office.
“The optics were a little bit weird, but there was nothing, no sinister plot,” Hewitt said. “I think the secretary and the IT department were just trying to do their jobs and we still have lots of time for everyone to register to vote.” Duplessis is now calling for a complete investigation into why the voter registration portal went offline.
“We’re going to go back into session on Monday and hopefully we can get some answers to these questions because I think the people of Louisiana deserve it,” Duplessis said. Hewitt maintains, despite the criticism, Ardoin’s office is doing a good job getting voters registered.
“I understand about 90 % of the eligible voters now have registered to vote,’ Hewitt said. Ardoin says he is taking corrective action to make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the future.
“We know we’re in a highly polarized environment and we’re focused on performing our election duties as best we can,” Ardoin said.
The deadline to register to vote in person or by mail is Oct. 5. You have until Oct. 13 to register online.