“So, I have a surprise for you,” Elon Musk said with a grin at an event he hosted in Pennsylvania on Saturday, aimed at getting people in the swing state to vote early and for Donald Trump. “We’re going to be awarding a million dollars, randomly, to people who have signed the petition everyday from now until the election.”
We refers to America PAC, a political action organization Musk founded and bankrolled to get Trump elected, and the petition in question asks signees to pledge their support to the First and Second Amendments. Those who sign the petition will also reportedly receive $47 for each registered voter they refer who also puts their name down.
Only registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin—key swing states—can sign the petition to qualify for Musk’s election-related lottery.
“One of the challenges we’re having is how do we get people to know about this petition,” Musk continued on Saturday. “The legacy media won’t report on it; not everyone’s on X. So, I figure, how do we get people to know about it? This news, I think, is really gonna fly.”
Musk’s remarks were punctuated by a roaring response from the crowd.
The billionaire then handed a giant check with AMERICA PAC and two flags across the top to the day’s lucky winner: John Dreher. Dreher appeared from the crowd, fist-pumping as he made his way on stage in a Make America Great Again hat.
“By the way, John had no idea, so um, anyway, you’re welcome,” Musk said before asking if Dreher wanted to say any words.
“Thanks, Elon, this is great, I’m really ecstatic,” he began. “I’ve been following you for 10 years, got your biography ten years ago and been watching ever since. Big fan.”
The event in Pennsylvania was Musk’s third in as many days, stumping for Trump and this new petition, while he stoked fears about what would happen if the former president doesn’t win in just a couple short weeks. Musk claimed—without clear evidence—that “if the Kamala machine wins” there would be widespread censorship, and that it would be “the last election.”
Some experts have questioned the legality of Musk’s stunt—with one calling it “vote buying.”
“Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, wrote Saturday evening on Election Law Blog.
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