A pro-Trump political action committee run by Elon Musk is said to have been warned by the U.S. Department of Justice about its daily $1 million draw for registered voters in swing states.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the DOJ’s public integrity section recently sent a letter to Musk’s America PAC about the raffle. The report said that “people briefed on the matter” were not named.
The cable news network cited unnamed sources who said that the letter warns that the lottery might be breaking federal law.
Musk talked about the lottery at a Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. There have been at least two winners since then. Both of them had already voted by mail as Republicans in Pennsylvania before they joined the contest.
People who are registered to vote must sign a letter saying they support the First and Second Amendments. Then they are put into the drawing for the $1 million prize every day.
Musk said last weekend, “We want to try to get over a million, maybe two million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendments.” “Every day until the election, we’ll give $1 million to a random person who signed the petition.”
It is clearly against the law in the United States to pay people to vote. The game that Musk is holding is a step away from that clear ban.
But some experts on election law say that paying people to sign up to vote is also against the law at the federal level.
UCLA Law Professor Rick Hasen wrote on his Election Law Blog that paying people to register to vote is “clearly illegal” under 52 U.S.C. 10307(c), which makes it illegal to give “false information in registering or voting” and can get you up to five years in jail.
Some people think that the fact that only registered voters can enter the draw is just a way to get more people to sign up to vote, which is really just a sneaky way to pay people to do it.
One famous person said on Musk’s site X (formerly Twitter) that the vocal tech billionaire was “paying to register Republicans.” Musk replied, “You can be from any or no political party, and you don’t even have to vote.”
Musk’s America PAC also gives people who get other registered voters to sign the petition a smaller cash reward.
The website says, “Get $47 for every registered voter you send that signs a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.”
As the election draws near, worries have only grown.
This week, a group of former federal prosecutors and government officials appointed by Republicans sent a letter to the DOJ expressing worries about the financial incentive. The office said on Tuesday that they knew about the letter and had received it, but they wouldn’t say anything else about it.
Now, if CNN’s story is any indication, the DOJ’s position on the matter isn’t very clear. However, it leans toward the idea that a contest based on voter registration is a way to get people to sign up.
What’s interesting is the DOJ division that is said to have sent the message. The public morality says it will decide on “election crimes.”
It is not clear if the stated warning also included a threat or notice of possible enforcement action, or if it was just an educational message. The DOJ has chosen not to say anything about it.
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In Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, there is a $1 million daily lottery. America PAC officials in all seven of these swing states for their thoughts on this story, but as of the time it was published, they had not responded.
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