FEC Electronic Filing System Goes Offline a Week Before Midterms; Hacking Attempt Reported

The U.S. Federal Election Commission's electronic filing system went offline around 10 p.m. ET Monday, a week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and an email seen by Reuters said a hacker or hackers had targeted the agency's website. The FEC said its IT staff were working to restore service but declined further comment and has not publicly confirmed a cause. The outage stops organizations from submitting the 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports that show how much political groups are spending on specific races. Users can still search the site for past reports. The FEC does not administer elections, so the outage should not affect voters' ability to cast ballots. Steven Mele, a partner at political finance compliance firm MBA Consulting Group, said he had not seen such an outage in 26 years and that disclosure on the elections would be reduced until it is fixed. The midterms will decide whether President Donald Trump's Republicans keep their congressional majorities.

Left-leaning coverage came from HuffPost, which carried the Reuters report, and The Washington Post. HuffPost leads with the hacking attempts, the FEC statement and Mele's quote. The Post's headline stresses that the agency won't say why the system is down. Right-leaning outlets agree on the outage and timing but differ in emphasis. The Washington Examiner leads with candidates and PACs being blocked from filing, notes that the FEC has not disclosed a cause, and attributes the hacking claim to Reuters. It also adds that voters will have a harder time seeing updated candidate finances. Newsmax puts the reported hacking attempt in its headline and says the FEC temporarily shut down its web-facing services. The Hill, listed as alternative, reports the hours-long outage and the FEC's confirmation of restoration efforts without emphasizing hacking in its excerpt.