Joe Frank is not a happy Virginian

He sent me an e-mail with the subject "Virginia Conspires To Prevent Voting ". I wish I were sure that Virginia is simply webincompetent.

He writes

I have tried over the last few days to get information but I can't find out where to vote or even who is running because The Virginia Board of Elections website displays the following message:

The page cannot be displayed
There is a problem with the page you are trying to reach and it cannot be displayed.

Please try the following:

* Click the Refresh button, or try again later.
* Open the www.sbe.virginia.gov home page, and then look for links to the information you want.

HTTP 500.100 - Internal Server Error - ASP error
Internet Information Services

Technical Information (for support personnel)

* Error Type:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (0x80004005)
[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.
/../../extcms/Cand/LocalCandidatesList.asp, line 156

* Browser Type:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

* Page:
GET /cms/Cidate_Information/Cidate_Lists/CidatesList.asp

* Time:
Sunday, October 08, 2006, 2:23:35 PM

* More information:
Microsoft Support

Clicking here I get

Unable to connect













Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www2.sbe.virginia.gov.








* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.