Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space He is now pledging to give $1 million a day to voters who sign his political action committee’s petition in support of the Constitution.
The gift is raising questions and concerns among some election experts who say tying a cash distribution to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote is a violation of the law .
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state’s former attorney general, expressed concerns about the plan on Sunday.
“I think there are real questions about how he’s spending money in this race, about how dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. “It’s deeply concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
A closer look at what’s happening:
Musk promised Saturday that he would donate $1 million a day, until the Nov. 5 election, to people signing the PAC’s petition supporting the First Amendment, which protects free speech, and the Second Amendment, with its right “to keep and bear arms. » He presented a check at 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 distributed another check on Sunday.
Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a crucial electoral battleground. It aims to register voters in favor of Trump, whom Musk has supported. The PAC is also working to win over voters in other key states. This isn’t the first money offer the organization has made. Musk posted on petition.
Trump, who was campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sunday, was asked about Musk’s gift and responded, “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.
Some electoral law experts are sounding the alarm about this gift. Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer, said the latest version of Musk’s gift is approaching a legal limit. That’s because the PAC requires registration as a prerequisite to becoming eligible for the million-dollar check. “There would be little doubt about the legality if all Pennsylvania-based signers of the petition were eligible, but conditioning payments on registration arguably violates the law,” Fischer said in an email.
Rick Hasen, a political science professor at UCLA Law School, went further. He pointed to a law that prohibits paying people to register to vote or to vote. “If he just paid people to sign the petition, it might be a waste of money.” But there is nothing illegal about it,” Hasen said in a telephone interview. “The problem is that the only people eligible to participate in this contest are people 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 offer so close to Election Day makes it harder to argue that the effort is anything but an incitement to elections. people to register on the electoral lists.
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but it’s close enough that we’re concerned 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 was prohibited. But a recent opinion from the federal elections commissioner, who regulates federal campaigns, allowed candidates and these groups to work together in some cases, including on get-out-the-vote efforts.
