FEC Filing System Offline Amid Election Weekend Cyberattack
The outage blocks required spending disclosures for political committees one week before the November 3 midterms, according to agency officials and compliance experts.
By Petra Garnier ·
The Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system went offline on Monday night, halting the submission of mandatory campaign finance reports just seven days before the midterm elections.
The agency confirmed in a statement that its IT staff are working to restore service, with the system down since approximately 10 p.m. Eastern Time. While the outage interrupts the filing of 24-hour and 48-hour expenditure reports, the FEC noted that users can still access historical data through the website’s search function.
The disruption prevents political committees and candidates from disclosing recent spending on specific races, a process that typically allows voters to see how much money is being spent in the final days of a campaign. Steven Mele, a partner at MBA Consulting Group, described the timing as rare for the industry. "I've never seen this in 26 years," Mele said. He added that the delay would result in less disclosure on the elections until the system is restored.
The FEC does not administer the vote, so the technical failure does not impede voters’ ability to cast ballots. The agency declined to provide further details on the cause of the outage or the identity of the hackers responsible.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The agency will continue to monitor the system as it approaches the Tuesday, November 3, election date.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
