The problems on Monday led Democrats to accuse the state, which also has a Republican-controlled Legislature, of voter suppression. Democrats have battled Republicans in the state on numerous voter rights issues
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Broward County, blamed what she called the “utter incompetence” of Mr. DeSantis, whose administration faced a crisis this year with the collapse of its online unemployment benefits system amid the pandemic.
“This particular blunder intimates a continuing pattern of voter suppression that the governor has become notorious for,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.
Aidil Oscariz, a lawyer in Miami who has been working with people with felony convictions to obtain their right to vote, said she received phone calls from dozens of people on Monday who were shut out of the website.
“Throughout the day, people were sending me pictures and videos of the glitches,” she said. “Some people spent over three hours on it.”
She said drop-down menus did not work and the page frequently reset or froze, no matter how many devices they tried to use.
Eliese Hunt, a 29-year-old construction worker in Sarasota, said the website kept locking up as he spent nearly an hour trying to register on Monday. Mr. Hunt has a felony conviction but voter organizations helped him pay off his fines. This would have been his first time registering to vote.