FEC Shuts Electronic Filing System After Hacking Attempt, Blocking $1,000 Campaign Disclosure Reports
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 28
FEC Shuts Electronic Filing System After Hacking Attempt, Blocking $1,000 Campaign Disclosure Reports
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 28
Summary
Late Monday, the Federal Election Commission took its electronic filing system offline after a “bad actor” tried to breach its systems, and the outage was still unresolved on Wednesday.
The shutdown has blocked candidates, parties and PACs from electronically reporting donations and spending less than a week before Election Day, when ad buying typically accelerates.
Federal law requires House and Senate candidates to disclose donations of $1,000 or more within 48 hours, while PACs and other groups must report certain $1,000 expenditures within 24 hours.
Early voting is already underway in some states, and watchdogs said the blackout leaves voters without legally required campaign-finance information during a critical stretch of the race.