Are Elon Musk’s 1 Million Dollar Giveaways to Voters Legal?
Elon Musk made a series of personal appeals to influence the 2024 election, holding a series of town halls across Pennsylvania with the goal of getting out the vote for Donald Trump. During this political tour that the Tesla CEO, who is backing Donald Trump for president, said he would be giving away $1 million every day until Election Day to voters who sign a petition issued by his political PAC.
His announcement was immediately met with questions by political critics and legal experts who felt that a promotional giveaway in the waning days of the election season likely ran afoul of election laws. Musk, however, has continued unabated, handing out two oversize checks to Pennsylvania voters in scenes reminiscent of a TV game show. Here’s what we know about the potential legal ramifications of Musk’s latest move.
What is Elon offering?
At a rally in Harrisburg on Saturday, Musk revealed his newest attempt to motivate voters ahead of the general election. “I have a surprise for you, which is that we’re going to be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk announced to applause.
Elon Musk just announced on stage that his SuperPAC will be awarding $1 million to a person chosen at random that has signed his SuperPAC’s petition.
— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) October 20, 2024
He says he will be doing it every day through election day.
He brought a man on stage and gave him a big $1 million check… pic.twitter.com/2Vo2lDH6jc
The petition in question is being promoted through Musk’s America PAC, which the Tesla CEO formed to support Trump’s presidential campaign. It requires the signer to pledge to support the First and Second Amendments, which govern the right to free speech and the right to bear arms. It’s only open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, or North Carolina, the seven most important battleground states. When the petition was first published, Musk initially caught some attention for promising to award supporters $47 per referral to the petition. In Pennsylvania specifically, Musk offered $100 to voters who signed the petition, and raised the referral bonus to that sum through October 21, the last day for voter registration.
As of Monday morning, Musk has awarded checks to two people: a man in Harrisburg and a woman in the Pittsburgh area.
Two $1 MILLION checks have gone out to voters for signing our petition to support the Constitution.
— America (@america) October 21, 2024
A registered swing state voter who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC every day until Election Day.
SIGN: https://t.co/TMeyWUhbrH pic.twitter.com/q1hlauy245
Could Musk’s actions be within legal bounds?
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on his blog that Musk’s promotion is “clearly illegal.” Hasen, who specializes in election law, cited the statute 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which says that an individual who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
“Essentially what you’re doing is you are creating a lottery. You’re creating a lottery where the only people eligible to participate in the lottery are people who register to vote, or are registered to vote, and that’s illegal,” Hasen told NBC News.
Notre Dame Law School professor Derek Muller told CNN in an interview that Musk’s giveaway only focusing on specific groups raises more legal questions. “When you start limiting prizes or giveaways to only registered voters or only people who have voted, that’s where bribery concerns arise,” he said. “By limiting a giveaway only to registered voters, it looks like you’re giving cash for voter registration.”
But other experts think the situation is not that clear. Brad Smith, the former head of the Federal Election Commission, called the giveaways “something of a gray area” in an interview with the New York Times. “He’s not paying them to register to vote. He’s paying them to sign a petition — and he wants only people who are registered to vote to sign the petition. So I think he comes out okay here,” he said.
Daniel Weiner, the director of the Brennan Center’s Elections & Government Program, told Reuters that the legality of the promotion likely depends on whether the goal of the petition is to get people to register to vote. “There is certainly an argument that this falls within the scope of a federal prohibition on paying a person to vote or register to vote,” he said. “This is part of a pattern of him skating up to the edge of election laws that we’ve seen in the past several weeks.”
Will there be repercussions?
In an interview Sunday, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who once served as the state attorney general, called Musk’s giveaways “deeply concerning” and said it was “something that law enforcement could take a look at.”
WATCH: Every day until Election Day, Elon Musk says he’ll give $1M to a voter who has signed his super PAC’s petition “in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms.”@JoshShapiroPA: “That is deeply concerning. ... It's something that law enforcement could take a look at." pic.twitter.com/2mZY1b5YaL
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 20, 2024
“Concerning that he would say such a thing,” Musk responded on X, sharing the clip of Shapiro’s interview.
Though questions about the legality of Musk’s latest idea remain, there’s currently no signs that the Tesla CEO will be forced to halt the giveaways. As of Monday, the FEC hasn’t made an official comment on the action.