Campaign Finance Data Gap: FEC Website Offline Ahead of Midterms

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) lost access to its public website in the middle of the night, just days before the November 3 midterm election. The outage prevented political groups from filing required spending reports, creating a temporary blind spot in federal campaign finance data.

An email from the FEC to a campaign compliance firm explained the cause. "We have a bad actor trying to breach FEC systems," the message read. "As a result, we've had to temporarily suspend our web-facing services." The disruption stopped organizations from submitting 24-hour and 48-hour expenditure reports. These filings track how candidates and groups spend money in specific races.

A status page on the FEC site confirmed the system went down after 10:15 p.m. EST on Monday. By 8:17 p.m. EST on Tuesday, an update stated that the issue had been identified and a fix was being implemented. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency both referred media inquiries back to the FEC for details.

Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum addressed public concerns on X. She clarified that the agency does not manage voter files or registration, which are state responsibilities. "The FEC only handles federal campaign finance findings," she wrote. Her agency is working to restore systems quickly.

The timing of the outage coincides with a surge in political advertising. AdImpact data shows approximately $11.21 billion has been spent or reserved for ads in the 2026 midterms. This amount narrowly exceeds the $11.2 billion record set in 2024, which included $3.2 billion in spending for the presidential race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Brendan Glavin, research director at OpenSecrets, noted that super PACs and dark money groups have averaged $50 million in daily spending over the past week. He described the data gap as a major issue for transparency. "In the last days of the election, this is the only way for us to keep track of where the money is being spent," Glavin said.

The FEC does not administer elections, but its digital tools serve as the primary public ledger for federal campaign money. With the election less than a week away, the delay in filing reports leaves voters without the latest information on how much money is flowing into the final push for votes.