FEC website outage halts campaign spending reports
A cyberattack disabled the Federal Election Commission's portal Monday night, stopping required disclosures just days before the November 3 midterm elections.
By Chloe Wilson ·
Hackers disabled the Federal Election Commission's web services on Monday, preventing political groups from submitting mandatory spending reports. The outage began at 10:15 p.m. EST on October 26. It blocks the filing of 24-hour and 48-hour expenditure reports that track candidate and group spending in specific races.
An email from the FEC to a campaign compliance firm, cited by Reuters, confirmed the disruption. The message stated that a bad actor was attempting to breach FEC systems. Consequently, the agency temporarily suspended its web-facing services. A status update posted at 8:17 p.m. EST on Tuesday, October 27, indicated that the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented.
The timing of the incident coincides with a surge in political advertising. Super PACs and dark money groups have spent an average of $50 million per day over the past week, according to Brendan Glavin, research director at OpenSecrets. Glavin described the outage as a major problem for transparency during the final days of the election.
"It’s a big deal," Glavin said. "In the last days of the election, this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money is being spent." The current cycle is the most expensive in US history. AdImpact, a political advertising tracker, reports that roughly $11.21 billion has been spent on advertising and future reservations.
This total surpasses the previous record of $11.2 billion from the 2024 elections. The 2024 cycle included $3.2 billion in spending for the presidential race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Super PACs, which are independent committees that can accept unlimited funds from individuals and corporations, account for much of this spending.
FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum addressed the incident on social media on Tuesday. She clarified that the hack does not affect voter files or registration records, which are maintained by state governments. Lindenbaum stated that the FEC handles only federal campaign finance findings. She added that staff are working to restore systems as quickly as possible.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency both referred questions about the breach to the FEC. The agency does not administer US elections. The disruption leaves a gap in public disclosure data during a period of intense financial activity in the November 3 midterms.
Source: Al Jazeera
