Does Musk’s daily $1m giveaway constitute election interference?

Billionaire Elon Musk has pledged to award $1m every day until election day in the United States on November 5 to randomly selected registered voters who sign a petition to “support the constitution” launched by his pro-Donald Trump America Political Action Committee (PAC).

Musk announced the giveaway on Saturday at an America PAC-hosted rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The scheme has come under scrutiny by legal experts as well as Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, who on Sunday asked law enforcement to launch an investigation into potential election interference.

Here is more about Musk’s giveaway:

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Donald Trump, appears on stage during an America PAC town hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, on October 17, 2024 [Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters]

Why is Elon Musk giving away money?

From October 17 to November 5, Musk said he will give $1m to a randomly selected winner each day if:

• He or she is a registered voter.
• He or she is from one of the following swing states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin or North Carolina.
• He or she has signed an online petition created by America PAC.

Musk, 53 – who is a founder and the CEO of the electric car company Tesla and rocket producer SpaceX and owns the social media network X – has a net worth of $274.4bn, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.

What is in the America PAC petition?

Musk has repeatedly called the petition one that “upholds the US Constitution”.

More precisely, the petition on a webpage belonging to the America PAC website, says: “The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.”

The webpage states, “EARN 1,000,000” in big, bold letters, flanked by two money bag emojis. Individuals who sign are supposed to enter their first name, last name, email address and cellphone number.

Next to the cellphone number field in the form, a note says the number is required only to confirm that the petition signee is a legitimate voter and “no other purpose”.

“Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the constitution,” the website added.

On Friday, the day before the giveaway announcement, the Reuters news agency reported that Alysia McMillan, who canvassed for America PAC in Wisconsin, said field organisers had reported they were missing their daily goals in terms of enlisting voters and were expecting to fall short of their ultimate goal of contacting 450,000 voters by election day.

In Pennsylvania, each registered voter who signs the petition will automatically receive $100 as compensation, and an additional $100 is paid for each person who signs upon their referral. In other swing states, individuals will get $47 per successful referral.

The date the petition was created and the number of signatures amassed so far were not visible on the America PAC webpage.

What is America PAC?

PACs raise and spend money to advocate for or against a candidate in an election. Musk formed America PAC in May to support former President Trump’s election bid this year. On October 16, it was reported that Musk had poured $75m over three months into America PAC.

Originally from South Africa, Musk obtained US citizenship in 2002. For years, he voted for Democratic Party candidates.

However, the relationship between Musk and the Democrats has soured during President Joe Biden’s time in office. Musk did not immediately become a Trump supporter. Instead, he threw his weight behind one of Trump’s competitors for the Republican presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis, in 2022.

Trump has a vacillating history with X, formerly known as Twitter. His tweets made the news regularly leading up to his first campaign for president in 2016, which he won. He was banned from X on January 8, 2021, two days after the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters over the results of the 2020 election, which Biden won.

However, Musk bought Twitter in October 2022. The next month, Trump’s account was reinstated.

Musk posted a supportive message of Trump on X, stating: “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” after an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

Musk attended a Trump rally on October 5, wearing a black cap saying, “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), which is Trump’s campaign slogan.

Why has Musk rolled out this prize scheme?

Musk said the reason he is giving away the money is to generate more awareness about the America PAC petition.

“The legacy media won’t report on it. Not everyone’s on X,” he said in a video of the Harrisburg rally posted on the X account of America PAC. “I think this news is going to really fly.”

“You don’t even have to vote, you just have to sign a petition,” Musk said in another video posted on the same account.

Is Musk’s $1m plan legal?

Making a payment to someone “for registering to vote or for voting” is a federal crime, according to a document published by the US Department of Justice in December 2017. It adds that this payment does not have to be money but can also be other valuables like liquor or lottery tickets.

Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer, told The Associated Press that Musk’s giveaway approaches a legal boundary. That’s because the PAC is requiring registration as a prerequisite to become eligible for the $1m prize.

“There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law,” Fischer told the news agency.

“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you’re getting close enough that we worry about its legality,” Michael Kang, an election law professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, told AP.

“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 the University of California in Los Angeles, wrote in a blog post on Saturday.

In an interview with the NBC television network’s Meet the Press programme on Sunday, Shapiro said Musk’s plan was “deeply concerning” and something that law enforcement should look into.

“Musk obviously has a right to be able to express his views. He’s made it very, very clear that he supports Donald Trump. I don’t. Obviously, we have a difference of opinion,” Shapiro said on Meet the Press.

“I don’t deny him that, right, but when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions,” he added.

Has Musk paid out any money yet?

Since the tech billionaire’s announcement, Musk’s plan has already seen two recipients.

On Saturday, Musk announced the first winner moments after he announced the plan at the rally.

The winner, a red MAGA hat-clad man named John Dreher scampered through a roaring crowd towards the stage, his fists pumping the air.

“By the way, John had no idea,” Musk announced, handing an elated Dreher a cheque as a US flag appeared on a screen behind them.

On Sunday, Musk announced the second $1m winner, a woman named Kristine Fishell. Fishell donned a red shirt with a slogan for Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, and cupped her hands around her face in disbelief.

Two $1 MILLION checks have gone out to voters for signing our petition to support the Constitution.

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

— America (@america) October 21, 2024