BATON ROUGE, La. (NewsNation Now) — Some Louisiana residents are questioning the timing of maintenance on a voter registration website.

Louisiana Democrats and voting rights advocates are criticizing the Secretary of State’s office after a website maintenance error message took down the state’s online voter registration portal according to NewsNation affiliate BRPROUD.

The maintenance fell on National Voter Registration Day, when a number of groups statewide were attempting to hold voter registration drives.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, a Republican, said Tuesday night’s website maintenance was “an unfortunate error” and “takes full responsibility.” Ardoin also noted a registration record for the state.

“I am proud of our record of registering over 90% of all eligible Louisianans, and our office works hard to ensure every citizen who wants to register can do so. Just last week, we sent registration information to over 100,000 identified eligible but unregistered citizens. ​

Last night our website experienced a short delay due to maintenance, an unfortunate error for which I take full responsibility. For anyone who wishes to register or change their registration, there is still time. The in-person and by-mail registration deadline is October 5th while the online registration deadline is October 13th.”

Louisiana secretary of state r. Kyle Ardoin

Ardoin has been at the center of a legal challenge over his emergency election plan limiting the use of absentee mail ballots by those affected by COVID-19.

Last week a judge ruled against it reported BRPROUD.

Democratic Senate candidate Adrian Perkins called the website maintenance “scheduled voter suppression.”