Elon Musk said on Saturday that America Pac, the Donald Trump-allied political action committee he founded, will give $1m every day until the presidential election to someone who signs his petition that appears to be a way to incentivize Republicans in battleground states to register to vote.
“We are going to be awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition,” Musk said at a town hall event in Pennsylvania. “One of the challenges we’re having is how do we get the public to know about this petition because the legacy media won’t report on it.”
“I figured, so how do we get people to know about it? I think this news will really fly. So every day between now and the election we will be awarding $1m, starting tonight,” Musk said, before presenting an oversized lottery-style check to the first winner of the prize draw.
The petition asks people to pledge their support for the first and second amendments, but the small print says that to be eligible for any of the monetary awards, signers need to be registered voters of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. All are considered swing states for the 5 November election in which Trump is seeking a second presidency at the expense of the Democratic nominee and vice-president Kamala Harris.
In doing so, the petition appears to be designed to principally push Trump voters to register to vote in the presidential election so that they can be in the running for the $1m prize. Signing the petition is also now a prerequisite to attend Musk’s town hall events.
The legality of the America Pac $1m prize draw is unclear, and a justice department spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
But several legal experts said on Saturday the petition appeared to violate federal election laws that prohibits paying or offering to pay for someone to register to vote or actually vote under title 52 of the US code.
According to the justice department’s election crimes manual, for an offer of payment to violate federal election law, it must have been intended to induce or reward the prospective voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.
The election crimes manual distinguishes between making it easier for people to vote, such as offering free rides to a polling station, and inducing people to vote, which is unlawful.
UCLA law professor Rick Hasen said in his blog that the America Pac $1m prize draw appears to be an illegal scheme because it offered the payments to registered voters.
“Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” he wrote.