Elon Musk voter giveaway may be illegal; Department of Justice involved
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Legal issues may be starting to arise for one of this year’s US presidential candidates, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent out a letter warning billionaire and former president Donald Trump supporter Elon Musk that his giveaway of one million dollars daily to voters who sign his political action committee (PAC) could be illegal.
The tech billionaire, who has supported the former president for the last two years, and formally endorsed Trump in July of this year, has set up his own super PAC. The America PAC to financially contribute to Trump's re-election campaign for the 2024 presidential election. The PAC’s current goal is to register one million voters in swing states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
While the committee focuses only on swing states, one state they are honing in on possibly holds the most value to win the presidency. As determined by the Decision Desk HQ’s analysis, Pennsylvania found that winning the state gives the candidate an 85 percent chance of winning the race overall.
The campaign pledges to give one million dollars to a randomly signed petitioner every day from Oct. 25 to Nov. 5. By signing the PAC, citizens support the First and Second Amendments for protecting free speech and the right to bear arms, respectively. So far, six checks have been given out to petition signers. They also pay out cash rewards for those who mention and get other citizens to sign the petition, starting at 47 dollars and then 100 dollars for every subsequent signer. Yet, according to the DOJ, this sweepstake of voting may not be entirely legal.
Federal law states that paying citizens to register to vote is illegal, and if found guilty, it can lead to a five-year prison sentence or a ten thousand dollar fine. The DOJ has sent a letter from its public integrity section to Musk, though the specific contents of the letter have not been released. Still, the integrity section looks into all federal crimes that might affect government principles, such as election crimes.
Many people, such as Rick Hansen from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Safeguarding Democracy Project, call the giveaway illegal. Hansen refers to the DOJ Election Crimes Manual, which states that an offer towards someone to vote violates section 10307(c) of the United States Code. This states in one of its guidelines that someone who pays or offers to pay or accept payments either for registration to vote or for voting is illegal, that the payment is illegal if it was intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.
Others, however, say that this could be technically legal. Michael Morse, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, states, “Federal law says that you cannot pay someone to register to vote. I think you can read this petition as an inducement to register to vote.” Morse further states, “The relevant legal question is whether this is payment to induce people to register. If it is, then it violates the law. If it’s payment to induce people to sign a petition, then it’s not a problem.”
Whether the America PAC is legal or not, it is contributing to what could possibly be a close presidential race. With only limited time until Election Day on Nov. 5, any tactic may be questioned and debated until the polls close and a candidate is elected.