Elon Musk is dramatically accelerating efforts to use his wealth to help Donald Trump win Pennsylvania, inviting new legal scrutiny in the process.
Musk announced Saturday night that he would “randomly” give away $1 million a day to registered Pennsylvania voters who signed conservative petitions put together by his super PAC. The sweepstakes is part of Mr. Musk’s effort to register voters in battleground states before Monday’s deadline.
Federal law says it is a crime for anyone to “pay, offer to pay, or accept payment to register to vote or vote.” According to the Justice Department’s guidance, this includes “anything of monetary value, including cash, alcohol, lottery tickets, welfare benefits such as food stamps.”
But some benefits that help people vote are legal and common. For example, organizations often provide rides to voters to vote, and companies often offer Americans paid time off to take time to vote, the guidance says. And importantly, Mr. Musk’s supporters say that because Mr. Musk is not paying directly for voter registration, but for petition signatures, which happen to be visible only to registered voters, They claim it’s not illegal.
Since introducing the petition earlier this month, Musk has gradually increased benefits to encourage people to sign it. Musk initially offered signatories $47 per referral to those who referred them. He then increased the offer to $100 and said he would pay both the signer and the referrer directly.
Some election lawyers suggested that Mr. Musk was inching toward a legal boundary. On Saturday night at City Hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mr. Musk offered the first $1 million payment and handed a supersized check to John Dreher, a voter he called on stage.
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