Experts say the plan to donate $1 million a day until the Nov. 5 election could violate laws that prohibit the use of cash to induce voting.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s promise to donate $1 million a day until the US presidential election has drawn legal scrutiny, with experts saying the plan could use cash to encourage voting. It warns that it may violate the prohibition on
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday that he is “very concerned” about a plan to give money to registered voters in the U.S. battleground state who also signed an online petition and that law enforcement is “reviewing” the effort. He said there is a possibility.
Musk handed out $1 million checks to attendees at an America PAC event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. The event was aimed at rallying supporters of Republican candidate and former US President Donald Trump.
“Mr. Musk clearly has a right to express his opinion. He has made it very clear that he supports Donald Trump. I don’t. Obviously we have a difference of opinion. “There is,” Shapiro said in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press show.
“I don’t deny him, but I think when you start funneling this kind of money into politics, you’re going to have serious problems,” he added.
Musk, through America PAC, a political action committee he established to support Trump, is working to help the former president defeat U.S. Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the November 5 election. He promised $75 million.
“I think this election is going to decide the fate of America, and with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization,” the Tesla co-founder said at a recent pro-Trump town hall event in Folsom, Pennsylvania. Ta. .
Such PACs are a common feature of American politics, but legal experts say Musk’s plan to give out $1 million checks to people who sign petitions in support of the First and Second Amendments has led legal experts to argue that PACs like these are a common feature of American politics. is sounding the alarm on the public pledge of
These amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, respectively.
Those signing the bill would have to be registered to vote, potentially violating federal law that prohibits the use of cash or lottery-style opportunities to induce people to vote or register to vote.
Paying people to induce or reward them to vote or register is a federal crime, punishable by prison time.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Election Crimes Manual, the ban covers not just monetary expenditures, but anything with monetary value, such as alcohol and lottery tickets.
Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a blog post on Saturday that “while the legality of some of the other things Musk was doing may be ambiguous, this is clearly illegal.” ” he said.
“I’d like to hear if anyone thinks this is not a clear violation,” he added.
Campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fisher told The Associated Press that Musk’s contributions are nearing the legal limit. That’s because the PAC requires registration as a prerequisite to being eligible for the $1 million check.
“If all Pennsylvania-based petition signers were eligible, there would be little question of legality, but requiring payment at the time of registration is certainly not legal,” Fischer told the news agency. It’s a violation,” he said.
Michael Kang, a professor of election law at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, also argued that given the context of the giveaway so close to Election Day, the effort is nothing more than an attempt to encourage people to register to vote. He said it would be difficult to do so.
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but it’s close enough to be concerned about legality,” Kang told The Associated Press.
