Michigan Secretary of State's computer system restored after 6 hour outage

The Michigan Secretary of State says an issue with the SOS computer system that caused transactions not to be completed has been resolved.

At 9 a.m. Friday, the Michigan Secretary of State's office tweeted that there was an issue with the computer system, preventing transactions from being completed online or in the office.

Around 11:20, the Secretary of State's office tweeted that late fees will be waived on expirations today but only if customers complete transactions on Monday.

Just before 3 a.m., the computer system was restored and service was once again available for users.

State spokesman Fred Woodhams said officials got word of the issue shortly before offices opened at 9 a.m. Friday. He apologized for the inconvenience and said the state currently does not have an estimate of when service will be restored.

People use the website and branch offices to renew their vehicle registration, driver's license and to conduct other business.

Woodhams says the state is using an "outdated" mainframe computer system "that is not working." The state in 2015 sued Hewlett-Packard Co., accusing it of failing to complete a multimillion-dollar overhaul of computers at Secretary of State offices.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.