A top election attorney is accusing pro-Trump billionaire Elon Musk of breaking the law with his plan to give away $1 million each day until November’s election to someone who signs his online petition.
The petition from Musk’s America PAC, which he started to help get Donald Trump elected, asks signees to pledge their support to the First and Second Amendments. However, the giveaway is only open to registered voters in the seven key swing states.
“To be eligible, both the referrer and the petition signer must be registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin,” reads the fine print of Musk’s petition.
At an America PAC event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Musk handed out his first $1 million check to a man named John Dreher.
The move is raising questions about the legality of these payments with election law experts pointing to various provisions in federal law that prohibited giving cash to voters.
“Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, wrote Saturday evening on Election Law Blog.
It is a federal crime to pay people with the intention of inducing or rewarding them to cast a vote or to get registered. It is an offense punishable by imprisonment.
Hasen cited 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which says that anyone who “pay[s] or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vot or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both..”
The professor also cited the DOJ election crimes manual which states: “The bribe may be anything having monetary value, including cash, liquor, lottery chances, and welfare benefits such as food stamps.”
The manual added that “for an offer or a payment to violate Section 10307(c), it must have been intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.…”
Musk has gone all in on Trump and has so far donated $75 million to help get the former president re-elected.
Musk said Saturday the goal is to get up to 2 million voters in battleground states to sign the petition “because I think this sends a crucial message to our elected politicians to, you know, care about the outcome in battleground states.”
Signing the petition allows America PAC to gather contact details which they can use to get more potential voters to show up for Trump in the crucial battleground states.
