Musk promises a daily $1 million lottery in questionable pro-Trump effort

Billionaire Elon Musk has further escalated his direct intervention in the 2024 election in support of GOP nominee Donald Trump, announcing Saturday that he will hand out $1 million daily in a lottery for registered swing-state voters who sign a petition put out by his super PACâ€s voter recruitment drive.

Legal experts questioned the legality of the move because it ties a monetary reward to voter registration status, which is expressly prohibited under federal law.

Musk — ranked by Bloomberg as the richest man in the world with a net worth of $269 billion — on Saturday announced that daily through Election Day, America PAC, the super PAC he created to campaign for Trump, will give away “$1M to someone in swing states who signed our petition to support free speech & the right to bear arms.�

“We want to make sure that everyone in swing states hears about this and I suspect this will ensure they do,� Musk said in a post shared on X.

The billionaire then linked to the petition, which states that the effortâ€s goal is to “get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the Constitution, especially freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.â€� The site explicitly says that the program is open only to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

The petition asks individuals to fill in their name, address and phone number, and they are encouraged to refer the form to other swing-state voters.

In addition, an individual signing the petition can receive $47 for each registered voter in a swing state that they successfully convince to sign the petition. Then individuals who sign the petition are entered into a lottery of sorts that will award one winner a prize of $1 million daily from now until Nov. 5.

The site also presents a special offer to voters in Pennsylvania — those who sign the petition will receive $100, and if they successfully convince another registered voter in the state to sign, they will receive another $100. The registration deadline in Pennsylvania is Monday.

The checks are only the latest move by Musk to boost his efforts on behalf of Trump. As The Washington Post has reported, Muskâ€s America PAC has emerged as a significant player in Trumpâ€s bid for a second term.

The billionaire has donated at least $75 million through his America PAC in support for Trump. The super PAC is running one of the most ambitious independent get-out-the-vote operations for the former president in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential race, particularly focusing on getting out the vote in swing states through a number of efforts, including large canvassing campaigns.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), in an interview with NBC Newsâ€s “Meet the Press,â€� said Muskâ€s petition raises “real questionsâ€� over how heâ€s spending his money in the presidential race, suggesting that law enforcement “could take a lookâ€� at Muskâ€s actions.

“Musk obviously has a right to be able to express his views. Heâ€s made it very, very clear that he supports Donald Trump. I donâ€t — obviously, we have a difference of opinion. I donâ€t deny him that right,â€� Shapiro said. “But when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at.â€�

Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer at the firm Harmon Curran, also said in an interview Sunday that Muskâ€s efforts are questionable.

“You canâ€t give something of value to people in exchange for them voting or registering to vote,â€� Kappel said.

Kappel cited a federal statute that states that whoever “makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidateâ€� will face fines or jail time. Kappel noted that, even if not illegal, Muskâ€s latest effort appears to signal that his super PAC “is not close to meeting its targets in terms of getting people out to vote for Trump.â€�

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Los Angeles, wrote on his blog Saturday night that the lottery program “is clearly illegalâ€� because federal law prohibits paying someone on the basis of them being registered voters. Hasen also pointed to the Justice Departmentâ€s manual on election crimes, which forbids payments “intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.â€�

America PAC said it has already granted a $1 million award to an individual who signed up through the petition — a man they identified as John Dreher, who was invited onstage by Musk during a Saturday rally in Harrisburg, Pa.

In a video shared by the PAC, Dreher said he admires Musk and then urged young men to vote early, warning that “thereâ€s a lot of things that can go wrong and prevent you from voting.â€� Onstage, Musk handed Dreher the check, saying that Dreher had “no ideaâ€� that he would be taking money home from the rally.

“So anyway, youâ€re welcome,â€� Musk told Dreher.