The US Federal Election Commission’s website was targeted by a hacker or hackers, disrupting the agency’s electronic filings system a week before the November 3 elections, Reuters reported late Tuesday.
The hack comes as so-called super PACs and dark money groups spend record sums in the final days of the races. The elections will determine whether President Donald Trump’s Republicans maintain their majorities in Congress for the next two years.
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.”
The US Federal Election Commission’s Electronic Filing System Has Been Disrupted After A Hacker Or Hackers Targeted The Agency’s Website, According To Reuters. The Incident Comes Just Days Before The November 3 Midterm Elections, As Political Groups Spend Record Sums In The Battle For Control Of Congress. The FEC Says Its IT Team Is Working To Restore The System, With A Fix Being Implemented. #uselections #cyberattack #usmidterms #electionnews #breakingnews
— APT News (@APT__News) October 28, 2026
The FEC, which tracks the spending of candidates and political committees, said users could still search the website for past reports. A status message, opens new tab posted by the FEC said its filing system had been down since around 10 p.m. ET on Monday (0200 GMT Tuesday).
Around 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0000 GMT Wednesday), a new status message said the issue “has been identified and a fix is being implemented.” The FEC did not immediately return a message seeking comment and a notice on its website said its filing system remained offline.
The FEC does not play a role in administering US elections and the outage should have no effect on voters’ ability to cast ballots.
The outage does prevent organizations from filing the FEC’s 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which show how much political groups and others are spending on specific races.
“I’ve never seen this in 26 years,” said Steven Mele, president and CEO at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group.
The FEC posted the notice to its website after campaign finance officers could not file mandatory reports late on Monday.
“We have a bad actor attempting to breach FEC systems. As a result, we’ve had to temporarily shut down our web facing services,” an FEC electronic filings officer said in the email to several campaign compliance firms that night.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI both referred questions to the FEC.
The midterms are now the most expensive US election in history with roughly $11.21 billion spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political ad tracker AdImpact.
They have surpassed the previous record set in the 2024 elections when $11.2 billion was spent on all races, including $3.2 billion on the presidential race between Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, AdImpact said.
Source: Reuters (edited by Al-Manar)