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Vendor issue causes several supervisor of elections' websites to crash in Florida

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd wouldn't speculate if it was cyberattack
'Vote Here' signs stacked in front of each other at Palm Beach County tabulation center
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Several county election supervisors' websites in Florida were not accessible to the public Tuesday evening after polls closed for the primary.

Scripps News Florida Capitol reporter Forrest Saunders heard from local officials who said this was a statewide issue.

WPTV interviewed Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link who said the issue stemmed from a vendor, VR Systems, used by counties throughout the state.

WATCH BELOW - Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link discusses why websites are down:

Vendor problem causing elections websites to be down for Florida primary

"We've been in constant contact with them. They're trying to determine what it is," Sartory Link said Tuesday evening. "They have specialists working on that, so we do have a couple of things that we're working on."

We contacted the Florida Secretary of State's office, and a public information officer said they were unaware of the issue when we called, but they are now looking into the problem.

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said this was not an issue with the Florida Department of State or state resources and also said it was a vendor issue.

WATCH BELOW - Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd discuss why some county sites weren't working:

Florida Secretary State Cord Byrd discusses why some county election sites were down primary night

Byrd wouldn't speculate on whether this was some kind of cyberattack issue or just high traffic that overwhelmed servers.

"[We're] still waiting to get more information," Byrd said. "This was an issue with their public-facing websites. It had nothing to do with the data or the votes being transmitted to the Department of State."

A person who answered the phone at VR Systems forwarded The Associated Press to COO Ben Martin, who did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment.

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