The US Federal Election Commission (FEC) has taken its electronic filing system offline following a suspected hacking attempt, disrupting campaign finance
disclosures less than a week before the November 3 midterm elections. The outage has prevented political organisations and committees from submitting mandatory spending reports during the final stretch of campaigning, limiting public access to information about money flowing into key election races. The incident comes as candidates and political groups ramp up expenditure ahead of polling. According to Reuters, an email reviewed by the news agency indicated that an unidentified attacker had attempted to breach the FEC’s systems, prompting officials to temporarily shut down public-facing services. In a statement, the FEC said its electronic filing system was unavailable while its IT staff worked to restore service. The commission declined to comment further on the incident, and there was no immediate independent confirmation of the extent of the attempted breach. The filing system had been offline since around 10 pm Eastern Time on Monday, October 26, according to a status notice posted by the agency. By Tuesday evening, the FEC said the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented, although the system remained unavailable, Reuters reported.
Campaign finance disclosures disrupted
The outage has interrupted the submission of mandatory 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports. These filings help track campaign expenditure and spending by political committees and outside groups in individual election races. Previously submitted reports remained accessible through the FEC website, meaning the disruption affected new filings rather than eliminating public access to all existing disclosures.
Steven Mele, a partner at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group, told Reuters he had never encountered a similar situation in his 26 years in the field. “The result is there will be less disclosure on the elections” until the system is restored, Mele said.
The timing is particularly significant as political spending accelerates ahead of Election Day. Campaign finance disclosures provide journalists, watchdog organisations and voters with information about which candidates and groups are spending money and where those funds are being directed.
Will the outage affect US midterm voting?
The disruption is not expected to affect voters’ ability to cast their ballots on November 3. The FEC oversees federal campaign finance reporting and monitors spending by candidates and political committees. It does not administer elections or manage the voting systems used by states.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had not immediately provided comments on the incident, Reuters reported.
The outage therefore concerns the transparency of campaign financing rather than the mechanics of voting. However, the interruption has raised concerns about access to timely financial disclosures at a critical point in the election cycle.
