Hackers disrupt US election watchdog’s filing system days before midterm polls

The US Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) electronic filing system was taken offline after an attempted cyberattack, disrupting campaign finance disclosures a week before the November 3 midterm elections, Reuters reported, citing an email sent to campaign compliance firms.The outage has prevented political organisations from submitting mandatory 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which provide details of campaign expenditure on specific races. The disruption comes as political groups and super PACs spend record amounts in the final days of the campaign.In a statement, the FEC said, "At this time, the FEC's electronic filing system is currently offline and our IT staff are actively working to restore service."An FEC electronic filings officer said in an email to campaign compliance firms on Monday night, "We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems. As a result, we’ve had to temporarily shut down our web-facing services," Reuters reported.The agency later said the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented. However, its filing system remained offline, while users could still search the website for previously filed reports.Steven Mele, president and CEO of political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group, said he had never seen such an incident in 26 years.The FEC tracks campaign spending by candidates and political committees but does not administer elections. The disruption is therefore not expected to affect voters’ ability to cast their ballots.Campaign spending reaches record levelsThe outage comes as the November 3 midterm elections have become the most expensive US election in history, with around $11.21 billion spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political advertising tracker AdImpact. The figure surpasses the $11.2 billion spent across all races in the 2024 elections, including $3.2 billion on the presidential contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.Super PACs, which can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations and spend heavily on campaigns, are driving much of the expenditure. Dark money groups are also spending large sums in the final stretch.Brendan Glavin, research director at nonpartisan campaign watchdog OpenSecrets, said super PACs and dark money groups had spent an average of more than $50 million a day over the previous week. More than $250 million in spending was reported on October 20 alone, he said."It's a big deal," Glavin said of the outage, which has left voters without timely access to the latest spending disclosures."These are the key reports that tell us what is happening," he said. "In the last days of the election this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money's being spent" and who's spending it.Midterms to decide control of CongressThe November 3 elections will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party retains its majorities in Congress for the next two years. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and around one-third of the Senate seats are being contested.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI referred questions about the cyber incident to the FEC. The agency did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.The FEC’s filing system had been down since around 10pm ET on Monday, according to a status notice posted on its website. A later update on Tuesday said the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented, although the system remained offline.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.