Will American Voters be Swayed by Elon Musk’s Inventive $1 Million YouTube-Esque Giveaway?
Or will it be seen as a desperate attempt to drive up registration?: “You don’t even have to vote, you just have to sign a petition,” said Musk who rolled out the lottery scheme in support of Trump's 2024 election bid
Published in
3 min readOct 23, 2024
The US Presidential race is level pegging as two weeks remain for US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US President Donald Trump to secure key votes across the country’s critical battleground states.According to the national polling average Harris leads Trump 49 per cent to 48 per cent and the two candidates are in the main tied.On Saturday at a rally hosted by America Political Action Committee (PAC) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Elon Musk, with an estimated net worth of $274.4 billion, who is owner of X, rocket producer Space X and CEO of Tesla announced his lottey scheme to give away $1 million every day until November 5 to a random selection of registered voters.
The terms of the lottery scheme requires the winner to be a registered voter, be from one of the following swing states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin or North Carolina and have signed America PAC’s online petition.
The petition created by America PAC states on its website:“The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.”The webpage also says:
“Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the constitution”.
America PAC was formed by the 53-year-old Musk in May to support Trump's election bid. Musk has thus far donated $75 million into America PAC.Musk has stated that the petition “upholds the US Constitution” and you can sign the petition regardless of party preference, as “You can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote”.
One must question what the legal ramifications of Musk’s innovative scheme is as he turns into YouTube’s MrBeast.According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the lottery scheme is subject to a loophole, in that persons are not directly receiving payment for registration or voting.Brad Smith, formerly chairman of the FEC told the New York Times:
“He’s not paying them to register to vote. He’s paying them to sign a petition - and he wants only people who are registered to vote to sign the petition. So I think he comes out OK here”.However, many experts are still questioning and are divided on whether the prize giveaway may still be a violation of federal law which states:“that anyone who pays or accepts payments to register to vote could be fined up to $10,000 and/or receive up to five years of imprisonment”.A UCLA law professor, Richard Hasen, wrote that Musk was “essentially incentivizing likely Trump voters in PA to register to vote,” and “If they weren’t already, they would do it now.”He also said:
“I think signing the petition is irrelevant to the legal question because you must be a registered voter. It doesn’t matter if you add other conditions”.Hasen also highlighted the Department of Justice’s Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses handbook, stating the prohibition of “any payment made or offered to a would-be voter for registering to vote or for voting.”
The two claimants of the prize giveaway are reported to be registered Republicans and have already voted by mail.On Saturday, the recipient of the $1 million was John Dreher in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. was the second recipient to receive the prize at an event in Pittsburgh.
