ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: The FEC’s filing system is down a week before the election. The agency won’t say why. (Praveena Somasundaram,WaPo, October 27, 2026)

The FEC is defective by design, as evidenced by its botched investigations, which are always stymied by the 3-3 tie among Democrats and Republicans on its board.  

Footnote: My second best interview at the 1985 Atlanta law student placement conference was with the Federal Elections Commission.  But only a few moments before the Challenger blew up, I learned in a telephone call that FEC was subject to a Reagan-era hiring freeze. No entry-level FEC staff job for me.

FEC's ineffectual tied-vote math and its maladroit nature, structure and performance is intended by Congressional Democrats and Republicans.

Consider the case of the corrupt Florida engineering company, Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan (PBS&J), which allegedly gave illegal campaign contributions to some 100 Florida politicians, including Senator Mel Martinez, while  some executives pled guilty to embezzlement and inflated billings to cover the campaign contributions.

More here: 

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/03/remember-mel-martinez-republican.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/texas-observer-miami-vice.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/miami-herald-ex-pbs-chairman-pleads.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/fraudfeasing-illegal-campaign.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/pbsj-press-release-on-vice-president.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/counterpunch-crimes-of-floridas-shadow.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/fort-bend-now-texas-fort-bend-county.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/pbsj-website-re-us-government-contract.html

https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/25979735?q=PBS%26J

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2007/10/fort-bend-texas-now-commissioners.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/07/off-hook-despite-scam-elections.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/12/fec-press-release-on-pbs-case-being.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2010/01/2nd-federal-elections-commission.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2010/01/you-read-it-here-first-folks-fifteen.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-by-bett-guilty-guilty-guilty-but.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/12/broward-bulldog-executives-talk-but-pbs.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/12/fec-finds-illegal-campaign.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/09/florida-trend-magazine-salty-solution.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post_6252.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/04/thanks-torep-micas-brother-oil-lobbyist.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2009/01/guest-column-giving-thanks-for-people.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/10/all-in-family-congressman-john-micas.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/10/mica-reminds-me-of-three-brothers-on.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/09/all-in-family-dour-representative-john.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/09/another-pbs-exec-pleads-guilty-ausa.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2008/04/repubilcans-target-libraries-for-budget.html

From The Washington Post:

• 

Praveena Somasundaram·14h

Reporter covering national politics

The FEC’s filing system is down a week before the election. The agency won’t say why.

The FEC began investigating an issue with its online systems on Monday night. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

One week before the midterm elections, the Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system — where campaigns, parties and PACs report their fundraising and spending — went offline Monday night and remained down Tuesday afternoon.

The outage comes during a period of accelerated disclosure. In the 20 days before an election, House and Senate candidates must report contributions or loans of $1,000 or more within 48 hours. Political committees and other groups must report certain spending totaling $1,000 or more within 24 hours after they are publicly disseminated.

FEC officials declined to comment on what caused the outage, including whether it was a hack.

In a statement Tuesday, the agency said its information technology staff was “actively working to restore service.” The FEC’s website, where the public can search filed reports, was not affected by the outage, the agency said.

The FEC began investigating an issue with its online systems around 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to the agency’s online status page, and confirmed that its filing system was down around 11 p.m.

The outage comes as the agency is badly diminished. The six-member commission has lacked the four members required for official commission action since May 2025. It has been unable to vote on enforcement matters, regulations, advisory opinions and audits, and it has had only two commissioners, both Democrats, since October 2025.

President Donald Trump nominated two Republicans to the commission in February, but the Senate has not confirmed them. The quorum loss does not shut down the agency: Career staff continue to process disclosure filings and carry out other day-to-day work. But an inspector general report found that the agency’s full-time workforce fell from 363 employees in 2002 to 293 in 2022 — a decline of about 19 percent.

The next major filing deadline for campaign finances will come after the general election on Dec. 3.