DEBARY, Fla. — Amid problems with the state's voter registration website, many, like Holly Zuercher, grew frustrated with the process.

“It kept sticking at that part where it says I’m not a robot," she said. “It would keep doing it and keep doing it and it never moved.”

Though the hair stylist in DeBary has long been registered to vote herself, a family friend was not.

So, she and her daughter tried to help them — unsuccessfully — for three hours.

“It was frustrating because you know the deadline’s coming and you can’t do anything," Zuercher said. "I had the computer going, had it on the phone, my daughter was trying it on her phone and nothing was moving."

Eliese Hunt, who lives in Sarasota, encountered similar problems.

“Going blank on the last page," he said, noting he then reached out to his cousin for assistance. “She found out the website crashed."

“We started hearing from people that were locked out of the website, they were getting error messages," said State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, House District 49. “The only fault is the state of Florida for having a website that is not equipped and ready to handle the capacity.”

Smith said that he's encouraged Gov. Ron DeSantis extended the voter registration deadline to tonight at 7 p.m., but feels it needs to be further extended by another day to communicate that to voters.

And there's more.

“It’s not enough to extend the deadline but a couple of days," he said. "We need to know what happened. It’s important the state investigate what happened with these technical glitches."

Zuercher said that this morning they were eventually able to get through and register her friend to vote.

Hunt, meanwhile, is hoping to get off early from his construction job to try the site again.

He had to wait until the last moment to register. because the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition just helped him pay off his outstanding fines. Hunt said he was grateful for that.

He is a convicted felon, served his sentence, and is voting potentially for the first time, ever.

“It means a lot. It means I got my freedom back, " he said. "I feel like I’m a human being now."

Steady Stream of Voters Show up to Register

The extension of Florida’s deadline to register to vote is helping more people register, and not just online.

Spectrum News 13 crews saw a steady stream of people Tuesday show up who, for one reason or another, didn’t register before the original deadline.

The extension was just what 74-year-old Elmer Wells needed.

“I thought it was a good idea because I know there’s a lot of people who haven’t registered yet, I mean a bunch,” Wells said. 

The problems with Florida’s voter registration website Monday night made it difficult for thousands of people to register.

The extension to 7:00 p.m. gave Wells a chance to register in person after he got off work.

He made the decision to go register after a coworker told him the good news.

“I said, ‘Well, I can get down there in a little while and get signed up,’" Wells said. 

Wells said he usually gets off work too late to get to the elections office before it closes, and can't register online.

“I don’t have internet, a lot of people can’t afford that stuff, there’s other things to think about besides that," Wells said. "Gotta put food on the table, make keep your vehicle’s running."

And he says many of his Orange County neighbors are in the same boat.

“Because they’re working paycheck to paycheck, and some are getting very little, just enough barely to put food on the table,” Wells said. 

But the elections office stayed open till 7:00 p.m. to accommodate the new deadline.

While this extension helped both those online and in person who still needed to register, State Representative Carlos Guerllmo Smith says the state should extend it for at least another day.

“To give us time to communicate the extension to the public, to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of this critical election,” Rep. Smith said.  

Wells says he hopes as many people as possible took advantage of the extra day.

“Because too much is riding on this,” he said. 

Secretary of State Laurel Lee announced Tuesday night that so far they haven’t found any evidence that the website was hacked or tampered with.

But she says they’re continuing to investigate.