Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX who has gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House, is promising to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political party’s petition action committee in support of the Constitution. The offer raises questions among election experts about the legality of the plan.

Some experts say it is a violation of the law to tie a monetary expenditure to signing a petition, which also requires someone to be registered to vote. A message seeking comment was left with the PAC on Sunday, as well as a request for comment from the Department of Justice.

Musk, the world’s richest person with a fortune of $242 billion, has already pledged at least $70 million to re-elect the former president and is now stepping up his efforts to get voters in swing states to support Trump. The X owner had previously offered supporters $47 for each registered voter in seven battleground states to sign his petition, a nod to the fact that the winner of the Nov. 5 election will be the nation’s 47th president.

“While some of the other things Musk did may have been of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” Rick Hasen, a professor of political science at UCLA Law School, wrote on the Election Law Blog, about the $1 million a day giveaway .

He pointed to a law that prohibits people from paying to register to vote or vote.

“The problem is that the only people eligible to participate in this contest are the people who are registered to vote. And that makes it illegal,” Hasen said in a telephone interview.

Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state’s former attorney general, expressed concern on Sunday about Musk’s $1 million giveaway plan.

“I think there are real questions about how he’s spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing not only into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That’s very concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Elon Musk’s PAC petition

Musk pledged Saturday that he would give away $1 million a day until the Nov. 5 election to people who signed his PAC’s petition in support of the First Amendment, which protects free speech, and the Second Amendment, with his right “to preserve and preserve freedom of expression.” carry weapons.”

He presented a check to a man identified as John Dreher at an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. A message left with a number for Dreher was not returned Sunday. Musk issued another check on Sunday.

Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a crucial election battleground. He aims to register voters in support of Trump, whom Musk has endorsed. The PAC is also trying to sway voters in other key states.

Trump, who was campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sunday, was asked about Musk’s giveaway and said, “I didn’t follow that.” Trump said he “talks to Elon a lot. He’s a friend of mine” and called him great for the country.

Legal issues with Musk’s $1 million giveaway

Among the election law experts issuing warnings about the giveaway is Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer, who noted that the latest version of Musk’s giveaway is approaching a legal limit.

That’s because the PAC requires registration as a condition of being eligible for the $1 million check. “There would be few questions about the legality if every Pennsylvania petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration is demonstrably contrary to law,” Fischer said in an email.

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 argue that the effort is anything but an incentive for people to register to vote .

“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you get close enough that we’re concerned about the legality of it,” Kang said.

Normally, coordination between campaigns and so-called super PACs was prohibited. But a recent advisory from the Federal Election Commissioner, which regulates federal campaigns, allowed candidates and these groups to work together in certain cases, including get-out-the-vote efforts.