The Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system went offline after a hacker or hackers attempted to breach the agency’s systems, disrupting mandatory campaign finance disclosures one week before the November 3 midterm elections.
In an email obtained by Reuters, an FEC electronic filings officer wrote to campaign compliance firms on Monday night that “We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems. As a result, we’ve had to temporarily shut down our web-facing services.”
The agency confirmed in a public statement that its electronic filing system was offline and that IT staff were actively working to restore service, while noting that users could still search the website for previously filed reports.
“I’ve never seen this in 26 years,” Steven Mele, president and CEO at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group, told Reuters.
A status message said the system had been down since around 10 p.m. EST on Monday, and a later update said the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented.
The outage blocks political organizations from filing the FEC’s required 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which disclose last-minute expenditures by campaigns, super PACs, and other groups on specific races.
These filings are especially significant in the final days of an election cycle when outside spending is high.
The FEC tracks and enforces federal campaign finance rules but does not administer elections or handle voter registration.
Officials emphasized that the disruption should not affect voters’ ability to cast ballots.
The timing has drawn attention because the midterms will determine control of Congress for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term, with record spending by outside groups in the closing week.
Reuters reports:
The midterms are now the most expensive US election in history with roughly $11.21 billion spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political ad tracker AdImpact. They have surpassed the previous record set in the 2024 elections when $11.2 billion was spent on all races, including $3.2 billion on the presidential race between Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, AdImpact said.
Much of the spending is being driven by super PACs, which can accept unlimited amounts of money from wealthy individuals and corporations, opens new tab and spend as much as they want on campaigns with few restrictions.
The sums being spent in recent weeks are staggering as Democrats gain ground in several Republican strongholds.
Super PACs and dark money groups have spent an average of over $50 million per day over the last week, said Brendan Glavin, research director at nonpartisan campaign watchdog group OpenSecrets. More than $250 million in spending was reported on October 20 alone, he added.
Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can’t see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.
