Photo: Michael Swensen Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Elon Musk presented a $1 million check to Kristine Fishell at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Marion Thibaut – Agence France-Presse in Washington
Published on October 22
- United States
A million dollars a day on the table: Elon Musk's latest initiative, which targets voters in key states, raises questions about its legality a few days before a very uncertain American presidential election where every vote could count.
While this daily lottery by the richest man in the world, fully committed to supporting Donald Trump for several weeks, has not directly provoked a reaction from Kamala Harris, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro considered it “very worrying.”.
“This is something that the authorities should look into” and that raises “serious questions,” he said Sunday.
Elon Musk announced that he would give $1 million, “at random,” once a day to a registered voter in one of the seven key states where the presidential election will be decided on November 5. And it is in Pennsylvania, the most coveted of them, that it began its distribution on Saturday.
But to participate in the drawing, you have to sign a conservative petition in favor of freedom of expression and the right to bear arms.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“We want to make sure that all the key states hear about (the petition) and I think that (this lottery) will guarantee it,” justified the boss of Tesla and Space X, who believes that this text has not been sufficiently relayed by the major media.
Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia form the swing states (swing states) this year, where the two candidates are focusing their final efforts.
For electoral law expert Danielle Lang, Elon Musk's offer is problematic and “contrary to federal law” because “the conditions of this 'contest' require that the beneficiary be registered on the voter lists of one of the seven 'swing states', or that he register if he has not already done so.”
This professor at Georgetown University assures AFP that the lottery could be “the subject of civil or criminal proceedings by the Department of Justice.”
“Grey zone”
An argument also developed by Rick Hasen, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law.
The latter recalls in his blog that federal law stipulates that any person who “pays, offers to pay, or accepts payment to register to vote or to vote” is liable to a fine of $10,000 or a five-year prison sentence.
But for Brad Smith, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, we find ourselves in a “gray area,” flirting with legality without crossing the red line.
Indeed, Musk “gets away with it” since he does not pay people directly to register but to sign a petition, he explained to New York Times.
After announcing his lottery publicly, the billionaire told the crowd that he had just one “ask”: “Go talk to your friends, your family, your acquaintances and the people you meet on the street and convince them to vote.”
In recent weeks, he has stepped up his support for Donald Trump, appearing on stage with the former president at a campaign rally and holding town hall meetings himself in Pennsylvania. Since July, he has accumulated $75 million in donations.
He has also been campaigning for Donald Trump for months through his X platform and more specifically his account, followed by more than 200 million people and where he echoes controversial content, even disinformation, close to ideas defended by the Republican candidate.
“Every election cycle we tend to see companies engaging in questionable activities like this, like offering a free product to those who show an ‘I Voted’ sticker, but this case is remarkable for its much larger scale,” Lang said.