Hackers Target FEC Systems Days Before US Midterm Elections

What happened

Hackers tried to break into the US Federal Election Commission's systems just days before the November 3 midterm elections, forcing the agency to suspend its web-facing services. The attempt was disclosed in an FEC email to a campaign compliance firm, seen by Reuters and reported by Al Jazeera.

"We have a bad actor trying to breach FEC systems. As a result, we've had to temporarily suspend our web-facing services," the email said.

A status message on the FEC website showed the system was down after 10:15 p.m. EST on Monday. An update posted on Tuesday at 8:17 p.m. EST said: "The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented."

The outage blocks the filing of the FEC's 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports. Those reports track how political groups and candidates are spending money on specific races in the final stretch of a campaign.

Why it matters

In the last days of an election, those spending reports are the public's main window into who is paying for what. Without them, voters, journalists, and watchdogs lose a timely record of campaign money at the moment it matters most.

That loss lands in the most expensive US election cycle on record. Roughly $11.21 billion has been spent on advertising and future reservations so far, according to political advertising tracker AdImpact, passing the previous record of $11.2 billion spent in the 2024 elections.

Much of that money comes from super PACs, independent committees that can accept unlimited amounts from wealthy individuals and corporations and spend it on campaigns with few restrictions. 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 the nonpartisan campaign watchdog OpenSecrets.

"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 disruption also follows a campaign already awash in outside money. [Senate hopefuls have built large war chests with out-of-state donations](/article/senate-hopefuls-out-of-state-cash-midterms), and the flow of that money is exactly what the suspended reports are meant to document.

What it means for the US

For US voters, the key point is what this incident does and does not affect. The FEC does not run elections. Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum wrote on X: "This has NOTHING to do with voter files or voter registration. Those are maintained by the states. The FEC only handles federal campaign finance findings."

So ballots and voter registration are not part of this incident, based on what the FEC has said so far. What is affected is transparency: Americans trying to follow who is funding the final push in close races, detailed in our [US midterm elections explainer](/article/us-midterm-elections-2026-explained), have less real-time information at a moment when [polls show a close fight for control of Congress](/article/new-poll-democrats-hold-midterm-edge-warning-signs).

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency both referred questions to the FEC, which said it was working to restore its systems as soon as possible.

What happens next

The next step is restoration. The FEC's Tuesday update said a fix was being implemented, and Lindenbaum said the agency was working hard to restore the systems as soon as possible.

Until those services return, the 24-hour and 48-hour reports will remain delayed, and the spending picture for the final days before November 3 will be incomplete. Watch for the FEC's own status updates for confirmation that filing has resumed, and for any statement on whether the attempted breach reached internal data. Neither has been reported so far.