ORLANDO, Florida — State election officials extended the voter registration deadline for some counties threatened by Hurricane Michael after Democrats called on the governor to extend Tuesday's deadline.

While the deadline to register to vote in the general election in Florida was Tuesday, some counties had to shut down their supervisor of elections offices because of Hurricane Michael, which included Bay, Gulf and Franklin counties.

The state is now allowing those counties where their offices are closed to accept voter registration applications on the day they reopen, according to Ken Detzner, Florida Secretary of State, in a letter.

This comes after Democrats sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, asking him to extend the voter registration deadline for the Nov. 6 general election.

"The impending hurricane will adversely impact the ability of eligible, but unregistered, individuals who may have waited until the last day to register to vote," Terrie Rizzo, Florida Democratic Party chairman, wrote in the letter. "These individuals may forego registering, in view of your warnings regarding the danger of the storm, the need to prepare, and anticipated and existing evacuation orders."

However, the hurricane will not be an issue in Orange County, as the Supervisor of Elections Office will hold extended hours on Tuesday for people waiting until the last minute to register to vote in November's election.

There has been a last-ditch effort to get people registered to vote during this critical election, with close races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Just within the first nine days of October, more than 3,900 people have been registered to vote in Orange County alone.

There are other ways to register if people cannot make it to their local elections office.

  • They can go to: RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov.
  • People can also do it at the DMV when they renew their driver's licenses or go to their local library to fill out a form.
  • Or they can mail their registration form at the post office as long as it is dated with Tuesday's date.

Election officials say they are expecting groups that have collected a lot of last-minute registration forms to hand them in the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office before it closes at 6 p.m.