Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space Now he’s promising to give away $1 million to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition in support of the Constitution.
The giveaway is raising questions and alarm among some election experts, who say it is a violation of the law to tie a cash outlay to signing a petition, which also requires someone to be registered to vote.
Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state’s former attorney general, expressed concern about the plan on Sunday.
“I think there are real questions about how he’s spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing not only into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That’s very concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
A closer look at what’s going on:
What is Musk doing?
Musk pledged Saturday that he would give away $1 million a day until the Nov. 5 election to people who signed his PAC’s petition in support of the First Amendment, which protects free speech, and the Second Amendment, which includes the right to “preserve and preserve freedom of expression.” carry weapons.” He presented a check to a man identified as John Dreher at an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. A message left with a number for Dreher was not returned Sunday. He handed out another check on Sunday.
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What is the broader context here?
Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a crucial election battleground. He aims to register voters in support of Trump, whom Musk has endorsed. The PAC is also trying to sway voters in other key states. It is not the first money offer that the organization has made. Musk posted on X, the platform he bought as Twitter before renaming it, that he would offer people $47 (and then $100) if they referred others to register and sign the petition.
Trump, who was campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sunday, was asked about Musk’s giveaway and said: “I didn’t follow that.” Trump said he “speaks to Elon a lot. He is a friend of mine” and called him great for the country.
What’s the problem with that?
Some election law experts are raising red flags about the giveaway. Campaign finance attorney Brendan Fischer said the latest version of Musk’s giveaway is approaching a legal limit. That’s because the PAC requires registration as a condition of being eligible for the $1 million check. “There would be few questions about the legality if every Pennsylvania petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration is demonstrably contrary to law,” Fischer said in an email.
Rick Hasen, a professor of political science at UCLA Law School, went further. He pointed to a law that prohibits paying people to register to vote or vote. “If all he did was pay people to sign the petition, that could 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 giveaway are the people who are 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 giveaway so close to Election Day makes it harder to argue that the effort is anything but an incentive for people to register to vote .
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you get close enough that we’re concerned about the legality of it,” Kang said.
A message seeking comment was left with the PAC on Sunday, as well as a request for comment from the Department of Justice.
Can the PAC and Trump’s campaign coordinate?
Normally, coordination between campaigns and so-called super PACs was prohibited. But a recent advisory from the Federal Election Commissioner, which regulates federal campaigns, allowed candidates and these groups to work together in certain cases, including get-out-the-vote efforts.
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