Musk’s $1 million voter petition lottery falls in a legal gray area, experts say
Elon Musk’s daily $1 million lottery for registered swing state voters who sign his super PAC’s petition falls into a legal gray area and could potentially violate election law, three experts told NBC News.
Elon Musk’s daily $1 million lottery for registered swing state voters who sign his super PAC’s petition falls into a legal gray area and could potentially violate election law, three experts told NBC News.
The petition, created by Musk’s America PAC, comes amid the entrepreneur's larger campaign over the last week to register conservative voters in swing states.
Paying someone to vote or to register to vote is explicitly illegal under federal law. Musk’s payouts seem to skirt those laws, though. Musk and America PAC have said that payouts or lottery entries will be given to registered voters for their petition signatures or referrals of other signatories. The petition is supportive of free speech and gun rights. Signing the petition does not require any specific party affiliation.
“I think it straddles the line, and it’s a little unclear whether it goes over the line or not,” said John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in election administration.
Elon Musk at a town hall in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Michael Swensen / Getty ImagesThe fact that the lottery is contingent on signing a petition, rather than merely registering to vote, may be enough to keep Musk from overtly breaking the law, experts told NBC News, but it’s not clear-cut.“This is at best very questionable legally,” said Michael Morse, an assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. “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.”
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