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Elon Musk Petition: Musk's $1 Million Swing States Fundraiser Is 'Deeply Concerning' for the 2024 US Elections

Elon Musk Petition: Musk's  Million Swing States Fundraiser Is 'Deeply Concerning' for the 2024 US Elections

Tesla CEO and speaks.

Since this photo is from Reuters

  • Author, Tom Bennett
  • Role, BBC News

Tech billionaire Elon Musk stopped short of saying he would give away $1 million (£766,000) a day to registered voters in key swing states until the US presidential election on November 5.

Well, of those who sign a pro-US Constitution petition from the Oga Musk campaign group AmericaPAC, we will randomly select the winner and prepare to support Republican candidate Donald Trump in his bid to get into the White House to return.

They will be giving away the first event, lottery-style, to a surprised attendee at a town hall event for Pennsylvania on Saturday evening. I'll give him an Anoda check on Sunday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and a Democrat who supports Kamala Harris call Oga Musk's strategy “deeply troubling.”

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Shapiro bin told NBC News Meet in the press that law enforcement may expect payments.

The contest is open to voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, all key battlegrounds that will ultimately decide the election to the White House.

Voting law expert Rick Hasen writes on my personal voting law blog We believe Oga Musk's offer is “clearly illegal.”

Under federal law, anyone who “pays, offers to pay, or accepts payment to register to vote or to vote” faces a $10,000 fine or five years in prison.

Although Oga Musk is technically asking voters to sign a form, Oga Hasen questions the rationale for his strategy.

“Who can sign the petitions? Just register voters who change states, we will not be illegal,” said Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law.

Those who sign the petition – we are committed to supporting free speech and gun rights – must provide their contact information and allow AmericaPAC to contact them about their vote.

Both Oga Musk and AmericaPAC did not request comment.

Campaigns and political action committees rely on tactics like petition signs, poll requests, or goods we purchase to build extensive databases of voter information. This data is better suited to targeting voters or collecting donations from supporters who are already on board.

For Pennsylvania, Oga Musk is giving voters $100 for signing the petition and an additional $100 for each resident they sign. Voters for ODA battleground states receive $47 per referral.

But this strategy is covered by a loophole in US election law to say no one is being paid directly to vote – even though, for example, they are injecting money into a process we need to identify likely Trump voters.

It is illegal in the United States to make payments to encourage voters to vote – not just for a specific candidate, but simply to vote.

This rule requires ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's to make the product free to everyone on Election Day 2008, as they initially want to limit only those with an “I Vote” sticker.

During his campaign on Sunday, Trump asked about Oga Musk's giveaway.

“I will never follow that,” he said, saying they often talk to Oga Musk and are “friends.”

The founder of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, formerly Twitter, does not appear to be one of the main Trump supporters.

Oga Musk is launching AmericaPAC in July with the aim of supporting the former president's campaign.

Having donated $75m (£57.5m) to the group to date, we have quickly become a key player in Trump's campaign.

The Trump campaign relies heavily on outside groups like AmericaPAC to turn out voters.

A statement on the group's website said: “AmericaPAC was created to support these key values: secure borders, secure cities, sensible spending, fair justice system, free speech, right to self-protection.”

Oga Musk said we want to get “over a million, maybe two million voters for the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendments.”

“I think let’s say (send) a key message to our elected politicians,” he adds.

According to US business magazine Forbes, Oga Musk is currently the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $248 billion (£191 billion).

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