FEC System Offline Before Midterms

The Federal Election Commission reported Tuesday night that it identified the issue affecting its electronic filing system and was deploying a fix. This update came after reports that a hacker or group of hackers targeted the agency's infrastructure just days before the midterm elections.

Despite the identified cause, the system remained offline early Wednesday morning. The outage began around 10 p.m. ET on Monday. An FEC official told campaign compliance firms in an email that a bad actor was attempting to breach the systems, leading to the shutdown of public-facing services. The commission has not confirmed whether the attacker gained access or if data was compromised. Reports filed before the outage remain searchable, and IT staff are working to restore the service.

The timing creates a specific compliance challenge due to late-campaign disclosure rules. In the final 20 days before an election, candidate committees must report contributions or loans of $1,000 or more within 48 hours. Political committees and outside groups must disclose certain spending within 24 hours. These requirements allow voters to see a near real-time picture of money entering races during the final stretch.

The delay obscures a surge in spending during this critical period. AdImpact reported that $11.21 billion was spent or reserved on political advertising as of Monday night. This figure puts the current cycle on track to become the costliest for political advertising on record. CNBC analysis shows that political committees and outside groups reported nearly $610 million in independent expenditures for communications disseminated between Oct. 20 and Oct. 26. That amount averages about $87 million a day.

The outage adds pressure to an agency operating with reduced leadership. The FEC has had only two commissioners since October 2025. It has lacked the four commissioners required to take official action since May 2025. Career staff continue to process disclosures and handle day-to-day operations without full board oversight.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not respond to a request for comment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation deferred questions to the FEC. The commission said it is working to bring the filing service back online as quickly as possible.