Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X and owner of X who's gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump's candidacy for the White House, has already committed at least $70 million to help the former president. Now he's pledging to give away $1 million to voters for signing his political action committee's petition backing the Constitution.
The giveaway is raising questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state's former attorney general, expressed concern about the plan on Sunday.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning," he said on NBC' “Meet the Press.”
A closer look at what's going on:
Musk promised on Saturday that he would give away $1 million a day, until the Nov. 5 election, for people signing his PAC's petition supporting the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment, with its right “to keep and bear arms.” He awarded a check during an event Saturday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to a man identified as John Dreher. A message left with a number listed for Dreher was not returned Sunday.
Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a critical election battleground. He's aiming to register voters in support of Trump, whom Musk has endorsed. The PAC is also pushing to persuade voters in other key states. It’s not the first offer of cash the organization has made. Musk has posted on X, the platform he purchased as Twitter before renaming it, that he would offer people $47 — and then $100 — for referring others to register and signing the petition.
Some election law experts are raising red flags about the giveaway. Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer, said the latest iteration of Musk’s giveaway approaches a legal boundary. That’s because the PAC is requiring registration as a prerequisite to become eligible for the $1 million check. “There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law,” Fischer said in an email.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA Law School political science professor, went further. He pointed to a law that prohibits paying people for registering to vote or for voting. “If all he was doing was paying people to sign the petition, that might be a waste of money. But there’s nothing illegal about it,” Hasen said in a telephone interview. “The problem is that the only people eligible to participate in this giveaway are the people who are registered to vote. And that makes it illegal.”
Michael Kang, an election law professor at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, said the context of the giveaway so close to Election Day makes it harder to make the case that the effort is anything but a incentivizing people to register to vote.
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you’re getting close enough that we worry about its legality,” Kang said.
A message seeking comment was left with the PAC on Sunday, as was a request for comment from the Justice Department.
Typically coordination between campaigns and so-called super PACs had been forbidden. But a recent opinion by the Federal Election Commissioner, which regulates federal campaigns, permitted candidates and these groups to work together in certain cases, including getting out the vote efforts.
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18 Comments
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dagon
Musk is offering a million to one signer everyday for his petition.
It is like the most regressive predatory political lottery imaginable.
Big payout lotteries are the most regressive tax to the desperate.
Musk wants to fulfill his libertarian nataliat fantasies.
He has thrown away the grand vision of his inspiration, Iain Banks.
Capuchin
Dunno, bruv. Wot u reckon?
Underworld
dagon
Musk offers voters $1 million to sign PAC petition backing Constitution. Is that be legal?
Even if it was legal, it's the biggest waste of money for the election. Surely Musk can't be so stupid. So likely it's just pure publicity.
bass4funk
Yeah, I really don’t want to hear from the people that think allowing 10 million illegals into the U.S. in the hopes they vote Democrat. They have zero credibility.
Hardly
Underworld
bass4funk
That isn't a thing. Illegals can't vote.
dagon
Fixed it for you as usual.
The billionaires who proudly boast they pay no taxes are masters at influencing the law so that their crimes skirt the vagaries of 'legality'.
These options are no available to the proles.
ArtistAtLarge
Ah, but will he actually pay? He has a very solid track record of NOT keeping his promises.
Peter Neil
the registered to vote part of the scheme is thinly masked, along with the requirement that that the petition be signed for entry to the events.
See 52 U.S.C. 10307(c): “Whoever knowingly or willfully gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence in the voting district for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register or vote, or conspires with another individual for the purpose of encouraging his false registration to vote or illegal voting, or pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both…
also:
DOJ Election Crimes Manual at 44: “The bribe may be anything having monetary value, including cash, liquor, lottery chances, and welfare benefits such as food stamps.
Peter Neil
the stench of desperation is strong when you start paying people.
Some dude
Want to be that even if legal experts conclude that it's illegal, precisely nothing will happen?
GBR48
It looks illegal, but if there is only a fine, Musk would just pay it. More interesting if there is jail time. But from the Trump case, the US legal system takes years to do anything.
There is presumably nothing stopping people from bagging the cash and voting Democrat, but giving your personal information to such an organisation may not be a plan.
To be fair, 'forgettable loans' do look like bribes, as do all the millions in donations from corporate America.
You should not be allowed to give anything - cash or gifts - to politicians or a political party. They should get a wage, a lump sum from the state to function and no more, with limits on personal expenditure.
In this case, the US election process is so corrupt, another million won't make much difference.
Blacklabel
That was a great 2 hour town hall with Elon full of policy and issues.
the Dems really have to be kicking themselves for forcing Elon to our team.
even Fetterman admits this was a self own, was totally unnecessary.
bass4funk
of course they can’t legally, but they do.
So plagiarism is a thing now for the left?
And who are they voting for? Kamala Harris and why is that?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/10/16/kamala-harris-has-more-billionaires-prominently-backing-her-than-trump-tyler-perry-bill-ackman-weigh-in-update/
https://fortune.com/2024/10/18/billionaires-business-leaders-supporting-kamala-harris-mark-cuban-reid-hoffman-mike-bloomberg/
So stop with the nonsense lib speak that the Billionaire class love Trump they don’t, if they did, Trump would have triple the money for this campaign.
Huh???
Peter Neil
bass4funkToday 09:34 am JST
yes, you’re correct.
some years about 40 or so do across america and other years almost 400 do across the whole country.
ballots are nullified and no races are affected.
Underworld
bass4funk
That isn't a thing. Illegals can't vote.
No, they don't.
Primusinter
With all my sympathy for Elon Musk, I can only say one thing: and you teach the whole world democracy?
His idea is to bribe voters. Your whole democracy is based on bribery.
bass4funk
Well, you can’t access information believe that if you want, I don’t.
Calif. made it illegal to check voters' nationality, clearing way for fraud
Ala. & Va. are removing illegals from voting rolls
DoJ is suing Ala. & Va., not Calif.
Underworld
bass4funk
It's not clearing the way for fraud, because there is no fraud.
That's because they aren't removing illegals from voting rolls. Illegals aren't on voting rolls.
Blacklabel
Non citizens ARE on voting rolls. Whether they are illegal, we don’t know.
as some states give drivers licenses to illegals and they are unlawfully registered to vote when they get the license.
Underworld
Blacklabel
Don't worry - it's not an issue. Illegals aren't voting.