Billionaire tycoon Elon Musk promises to give up to $1 million a day to registered voters in key states who sign a petition from America PAC, the political action committee with which he is investing tens of millions dollars to support Republican Donald Trump. .
The petition aims to “support the Constitution of the United States, especially the right to free speech and bear arms,” Tesla, Space X and social network businessman Musk tweeted today x.
Musk already announced yesterday during a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that he would randomly donate $1 million per day until November 5 to voters in key states who sign the petition; The goal, he said, is to obtain the signatures of more than a million voters. Thus, the petition is open only to people registered to vote in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
The America PAC website also states that signers will receive $47 for each registered voter in a swing state they convince to sign the petition. At the Pennsylvania event, Musk handed the first $1 million to a man in the audience.
Many experts now question the legality of this initiative: “You can’t give people something of value in exchange for them voting or registering to vote,” said Brett Kappel, lawyer specializing in campaign finance, in an interview with the Washington Post. Harmon Curran.
Kappel referenced a federal law that decrees that anyone who “makes or proposes to make an expense to any person either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against a candidate” is subject to fines or penalties from prison.
For his part, the governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro, indicated in an interview with NBC that, although Musk has every right to express his opinions, “when this type of money starts flowing into politics, This raises serious questions.” that people might want to take a look at.
The 53-year-old South African businessman is one of the strongest supporters of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and has fully invested in supporting the MAGA movement (acronym for “Make America Great Again”). Musk has donated $75 million (around €69 million) to America PAC since last July.
