news

Elon Musk’s $1 million payments to voters raise legal questions

Vaseline October 21, 2024

Voting law experts said billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to grant $1 million per day Until the Nov. 5 election, people in swing states who sign his petition in support of the Constitution could be investigated by law enforcement.

Musk announced the pricesdistributed through his political action committee America PAC on Saturday during a rally in support of Donald Trump. The first winner, a man named John Dreher, was selected at the event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“John had no idea anyway. So anyway, you’re welcome,” Musk said as he presented Dreher with an oversized check.

Musk has quickly become one of Trump’s most prominent supporters. The Space X founder has hit the campaign trail with Trump, pledging tens of millions of dollars to support the former president’s re-election bid.

The petition from Musk’s PAC states that the goal is to “get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the Constitution, specifically freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.”

The site explicitly says the program is only open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina. The deadline to register is Monday.

The petition also offers $100 to each registered swing-state voter who signs, and $100 for referring a registered voter to sign.

The fact that Musk’s organization chooses these states is no coincidence: they are the battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential elections. Campaigns have been courting voters in the United States for months.

Is Elon Musk’s Giveaway Legal?

The pressure from the Tesla CEO raised eyebrows last weekend – and raised major legal questions.

Federal election law says anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts any payment for registering to vote or voting” is breaking the law.

The Justice Department’s election crimes manual states that unlawful bribery can be anything of monetary value, including lottery odds, that makes it easier for people to vote or induces them not to vote. The definition does not include a free ride to the polls.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Musk’s plan to give money to registered voters in Pennsylvania is “very concerning” and “it’s something law enforcement could look into.”

He wasn’t the only one. Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a blog post that he believes the program appears to violate the law.

“While some of the other things Musk did may have been of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” Hasen wrote.

Not all experts agreed. Michael Kang, an election law professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, told the Associated Press that the group launching the giveaway within weeks of Election Day is concerning. He explained: “It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you get close enough that we worry about the legality of it.”

Brad Smith, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told the New York Times that because Musk pays people to sign a petition, and not to register to vote, he “comes out fine” in the weeks prior to election day.

The Federal Election Commission did not confirm whether it was investigating potential enforcement issues, but has a site to register complaints, spokesman Myles Martin said when asked about the giveaway.

America PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.