Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and former President Donald Trump’s campaign surrogate, recently announced plans to pay $1 million a day through Nov. 5 to a randomly selected person who signs a petition from his political action committee.
To win the money, the signatory must be a registered swing state voter — and that criterion has raised concerns that Musk Violation of a federal law Which makes it illegal to pay people (or give them an incentive) to register to vote or cast a ballot.
“I think there’s a strong argument that there is potential criminal liability, so at least [the Department of Justice] Should be investigated and people should be warned not to do this. Richard laughsdirector of the Protective Democracy Project at UCLA Law School, told Vox.
The program works like this: Registered voters in Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada or Wisconsin — all swing states that could carry Vice President Kamala Harris or Trump come Election Day — can sign up. applicationIt claims to be “petitioning for free speech and the right to bear arms” until Monday, October 21. That’s the voter registration deadline in Pennsylvania.
The petition is being promoted by Musk’s America PAC, which has taken over much of Trump’s ground operations. Key swing state. Musk has made Pennsylvania a particular focus of his personal outreach, hosting events there, including one on Sunday where he handed a giant check for $1 million to a woman wearing a Trump-Vance shirt.
Although signatories to the petition are not required to be registered Republicans, the focus on the First and Second Amendments appeals to potential Trump voters who fear Democrats will take away their gun rights and who subscribe to Musk’s ideas.freedom of speech” The net effect, then, is that Musk is pledging $1 million a day to a program aimed at registering pro-Trump voters in swing states.
Since his race is only open to registered voters, there could be a case for what he perceives as an illegal financial incentive to get people registered to vote. A problem facing Kasturi, Dr David BakerExecutive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, the structure of payments for voting-related activities has been widely explained in the past.
“There could be something valuable involved,” Baker said. The Act applied to matters such as “ Ben & Jerry’s is offering everyone who has an ‘I Voted’ sticker an ice cream cone on Election Day.. They received a cease and desist letter and exchanged [the promotion to give] Free ice cream corner for everyone on election day.
Musk’s campaign has some ambiguities compared to Ben & Jerry’s offerings. The uncertainty stems from the fact that Musk’s PAC is asking people to sign a petition for a chance to win $1 million without explicitly rewarding them for registering to vote.
Daniel WeinerDirector of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, told Vox that the problem really comes down to whether entering a certain group of people into the lottery counts as paying people to vote if they sign a petition.
“There is certainly an argument that, [but] I think it’s hard to know for sure how it’s going to play out in court,” Weiner said.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called the race “concerning” and said it was something law enforcement could look into. of NBC Meet the press sunday. So far, the federal government has not announced any competition investigation.
If indeed the Justice Department decides to pursue Musk, it will first send a cease-and-desist letter — just like Ben & Jerry’s did back in 2008. From there, he has to decide how to respond; Violation of the law is punishable by $10,000 or a maximum of five years in prison
But even if the DOJ decides to go after Musk — and there’s no guarantee it will — the issue likely won’t be resolved before Nov. 5, in part to avoid any perception by the federal government that the DOJ is meddling in the election.
“There are important rules regarding investigations and initiation of legal proceedings in the run-up to elections. Otherwise, they could potentially open an investigation after the election, and it’s hard to predict if they’ll do something like that,” Weiner said. “I think that’s an issue whose legitimacy will not be resolved before the election.”
