The United States Federal Election Commission ( FEC ) stated on Tuesday evening that it had identified issues affecting its electronic reporting system and was taking steps to fix them. Previously, there were reports that a few days before the mid-term elections, the agency's system was targeted by hackers or a group of hackers.

But by early Wednesday, the system was still offline, cutting off a crucial window for understanding the flow of campaign funds, at a time when we were just one step away from a surge in expenditures in the run-up to the election.

According to an email obtained by Reuters, an official from the FEC electronic filing department told a campaign compliance company on Monday evening that a "malicious actor" was attempting to invade the institution's system, and the services available to the public had been shut down. The filing system has been offline since around 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday.

FEC has not yet clarified who is behind this alleged attempt to invade, nor has it been stated whether anyone managed to gain access to their system or if any data was leaked. Reports submitted earlier are still available for retrieval.

Within the last 20 days before the election, candidate committees must report any donations or loans amounting to $1,000 or more within 48 hours, while political committees and external groups must disclose certain expenditures within 24 hours.

These rules are designed to allow voters to see, almost in real time, the funds that flow into the campaigns at critical moments.

For example, based on the analysis of the FEC file using CNBC, Elon Musk's America PAC report indicates that the communications he disseminated on October 20th resulted in nearly $6.8 million in independent expenditures.

Normally, expenditures of this scale would be made public almost immediately. However, with the reporting system down, new funds can continue to flow into the campaigns, yet the public is unaware of this.

At a time when this potential information gap emerges, the mid-term elections of 2026 have become the election cycle with the highest political advertising spending in U.S. history. According to data from AdImpact as of Monday evening, the amount already spent or reserved has reached $11.21 billion.

This failure also impacted an institution that was already in a vulnerable position. The group FEC, consisting of six members, has only had two members since October 2025 and has been lacking the four members required to take formal action since May 2025. Professional staff have continued to process disclosure documents and maintain daily operations.

FEC, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.