Campaign finance disclosures stall as FEC system goes offline days before midterms; hackers reportedly target site
Website disruption affects filings
The Federal Election Commission’s website has been disrupted after hackers reportedly targeted it, affecting campaign spending disclosures in the days before the midterm elections. An FEC email said a “bad actor” had tried to breach its systems.
The outage has stopped organisations from submitting the agency’s 24- and 48-hour spending reports. Those filings show how political groups and candidates are spending on particular races.
FEC says repair is underway
An update posted Tuesday at 8:17pm EST said the problem had been identified and that a fix was being put in place. The update did not provide further details about the disruption.
Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum said on X that the incident was unrelated to voter files or voter registration. She said those records are maintained by states, while the FEC handles federal campaign finance filings.
Election spending at record levels
The disruption comes as the US approaches what the article describes as its most expensive elections ever. Spending has surpassed the earlier record of $11.2bn in the 2024 elections, including $3.2bn in the presidential contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, according to AdImpact figures.
Super PACs and dark money groups have averaged $50m in spending per day over the past week, said Brendan Glavin, research director at the nonpartisan campaign watchdog OpenSecrets. The interrupted reports track spending by political organisations and candidates.
Key points
- The FEC website outage has disrupted campaign spending disclosures before the midterms.
- Organisations cannot file the agency’s 24- and 48-hour spending reports.
- The FEC said it had identified the issue and was implementing a fix.
- Dara Lindenbaum said voter files and registration are maintained by states.