Elon Musk, the billionaire founding father of Tesla and House X and proprietor of X who’s gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White Home, has already dedicated not less than $70 million to assist the previous president. Now he’s pledging to present away $1 million to voters for signing his political motion committee’s petition backing the Structure.
The giveaway is elevating questions and alarms amongst some election specialists who say it’s a violation of the regulation to hyperlink a money handout to signing a petition that additionally requires an individual to be registered to vote.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state’s former lawyer normal, expressed concern in regards to the plan on Sunday.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” he mentioned on NBC’ “Meet the Press.”
A better take a look at what’s occurring:
What’s Musk doing?
Musk promised on Saturday that he would give away $1 million a day, till the Nov. 5 election, for individuals signing his PAC’s petition supporting the First Modification, which protects freedom of speech, and the Second Modification, with its proper “to keep and bear arms.” He awarded a verify throughout an occasion Saturday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to a person recognized as John Dreher. A message left with a quantity listed for Dreher was not returned Sunday. He gave out one other verify Sunday.
What’s the broader context right here?
Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a crucial election battleground. He’s aiming to register voters in assist of Trump, whom Musk has endorsed. The PAC can also be pushing to influence voters in different key states. It’s not the primary provide of money the group has made. Musk has posted on X, the platform he bought as Twitter earlier than renaming it, that he would provide individuals $47 — after which $100 — for referring others to register and signing the petition.
Trump, who was campaigning Sunday in Pennsylvania, was requested about Musk’s giveaway, and mentioned, “I haven’t followed that.” Trump mentioned he “speaks to Elon a lot. He’s a friend of mine” and known as him nice for the nation.
What’s the problem with that?
Some election regulation specialists are elevating pink flags in regards to the giveaway. Brendan Fischer, a marketing campaign finance lawyer, mentioned the newest iteration of Musk’s giveaway approaches a authorized boundary. That’s as a result of the PAC is requiring registration as a prerequisite to change into eligible for the $1 million verify. “There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law,” Fischer mentioned in an electronic mail.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA Regulation Faculty political science professor, went additional. He pointed to a regulation that prohibits paying individuals for registering to vote or for voting. “If all he was doing was paying people to sign the petition, that might be a waste of money. But there’s nothing illegal about it,” Hasen mentioned in a phone interview. “The problem is that the only people eligible to participate in this giveaway are the people who are registered to vote. And that makes it illegal.”
Michael Kang, an election regulation professor at Northwestern College’s Pritzker Faculty of Regulation, mentioned the context of the giveaway so near Election Day makes it more durable to make the case that the hassle is something however a incentivizing individuals to register to vote.
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you’re getting close enough that we worry about its legality,” Kang mentioned.
A message searching for remark was left with the PAC on Sunday, as was a request for remark from the Justice Division.
Can the PAC and Trump’s marketing campaign coordinate?
Sometimes coordination between campaigns and so-called tremendous PACs had been forbidden. However a latest opinion by the Federal Election Commissioner, which regulates federal campaigns, permitted candidates and these teams to work collectively in sure instances, together with getting out the vote efforts.
