Washington CNN While stumping for former President Donald Trump on Saturday, tech billionaire Elon Musk announced plans to hand out $1 million a day to registered voters in battleground states, prompting instant criticism from election law experts who said the sweepstakes could run afoul of laws against paying people to register.
We want to get over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendments. … We will be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition daily, from now until the election,” Musk said at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The X owner and Tesla CEO was talking about a campaign launched by his political action committee, affirming his support for the rights to free speech and to bear arms.
The website, which launched just before some registration deadlines, says, “This program is exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.”
The first million-dollar winner was named Saturday. Musk handed a giant check to a Trump supporter at his event in Harrisburg, saying, “So anyway, you’re welcome.”
The second winner was announced Sunday afternoon at an event in Pittsburgh. The check was presented on a stage adorned with big signs reading, “VOTE EARLY.“
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Musk’s giveaway was “deeply concerning” and that law enforcement could take a look at it. Shapiro was previously the state attorney general.
Federal law makes a felony offense: anyone “who pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting.” The offense carries a prison term of up to five years.
“When you start limiting prizes or giveaways to only registered voters or only people who have voted, that’s where bribery concerns arise,” said Derek Muller, an election law expert who teaches at Notre Dame Law School.
“Limiting a giveaway only to registered voters looks like you’re giving cash for voter registration.”
