The Pennsylvania Department of State has delayed the maintenance of its online voter registration website following complaints from the Republican National Committee. The original plan was for the website to be inaccessible between 6 p.m. on October 5 and 12 a.m. on October 6, which would have coincided with a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler Township, Pennsylvania. This is the same location where Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July.
Scott Presler, who has been chosen by the RNC to lead their get-out-the-vote effort this election cycle, raised concerns about the timing of the website maintenance. He questioned whether it amounted to election interference and directed his criticism towards the Pennsylvania State Department’s office.
Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of Donald Trump and co-chair of the RNC, also criticized the timing of the maintenance in a social media post on October 3. She accused them of not even trying to hide their interference and stated that a formal request had been sent by their legal team to reschedule it.
In response to these concerns, the Pennsylvania State Department decided to move forward with their planned downtime but shifted it four hours earlier. The voter registration website will now be offline from 10 p.m. on October 5 until 4 a.m. on October 6.
Scott Presler expressed satisfaction with this decision and claimed that changing the maintenance schedule would result in President Trump gaining more votes during his rally in Butler.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Pennsylvania State Department for comment but did not receive a response at publication time.
It is worth noting that President Trump took to stage at around 6 p.m., which was initially when the voter registration website was supposed to be down for maintenance.