Musk’s PAC says it will give away $1 million every day until the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elon Musk\u2019s daily $1 million lottery for registered swing state voters who sign his super PAC\u2019s petition falls into a legal gray area and could potentially violate election law, three experts told NBC News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The petition<\/a>, created by Musk\u2019s America PAC, comes amid the entrepreneur’s larger campaign over the last week to register conservative voters in swing states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paying someone to vote or to register to vote is explicitly illegal under federal law. Musk\u2019s payouts seem to skirt those laws, though. Musk and America PAC have said that payouts or lottery entries will be given to registered voters for their petition signatures or referrals of other signatories. The petition is supportive of free speech and gun rights. Signing the petition does not require any specific party affiliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it straddles the line, and it\u2019s a little unclear whether it goes over the line or not,\u201d said John Fortier, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in election administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that the lottery is contingent on signing a petition, rather than merely registering to vote, may be enough to keep Musk from overtly breaking the law, experts told NBC News, but it\u2019s not clear-cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is at best very questionable legally,\u201d said Michael Morse, an assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. \u201cFederal law says that you cannot pay someone to register to vote. I think you can read this petition as an inducement to register to vote.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of a million-dollar lottery in the last weeks of a presidential campaign, to either sign a petition or to induce people to register, so we\u2019re in new legal territory here,\u201d said Nate Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe relevant legal question is whether this is payment to induce people to register. If it is, then it violates the law. If it\u2019s payment to induce people to sign a petition, then it\u2019s not a problem,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk\u2019s PAC announced the initial payouts to signatories and referrers of signatories of the petition on Oct. 6. Over the last several days, Musk has upped the ante, adding money to his promises several times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rick Hasen, the director of the UCLA School of Law\u2019s Safeguarding Democracy Project and an NBC News election law analyst, wrote Saturday<\/a> that he believes Musk\u2019s plan is \u201cclearly illegal\u201d because the petition requires signers to be registered voters in particular states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hasen noted that the Justice Department\u2019s Election Crimes Manual<\/a> explicitly cites \u201clottery chances\u201d as an example of a type of illegal bribe if it\u2019s \u201cintended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pennsylvania Gov. Democrat Josh Shapiro said on Meet the Press<\/a> Sunday that the lottery was \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d and suggested law enforcement could investigate it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But none of the experts who spoke with NBC News believed law enforcement is likely to stop the lottery or fine Musk before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Department of Justice is authorized to enforce the statute, Morse said. \u201cBut I think in the next three weeks they have other things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Justice Department, Pennsylvania Attorney General\u2019s office, and Federal Election Commission declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musk endorsed Trump<\/a> in July, after Trump became the Republican Party\u2019s nominee. The world\u2019s wealthiest person,<\/a> Musk is engaged in at least 11 regulatory or legal battles with the federal government related to his companies, a previous NBC News tally<\/a> found, making the stakes of the presidential election high for him. Musk\u2019s companies have won billions<\/a> in federal contracts over the last decade, according to a recent tally from The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deadline for voter registration in Pennsylvania and Michigan is Monday. The contest\u2019s rules appear to say that while it no longer accepts new entrants after Monday, it will continue to name new $1 million prize winners each day until the election. So far it has named two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday morning, Musk celebrated Republican voter registration in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNew Republican voter registration last week in Pennsylvania absolutely crushed Democrat voter registration!\u201d he wrote<\/a> on X. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Morse, the Penn law professor, said he viewed the lottery as unlikely to be a consequential stunt, and instead it seemed more like a data mining operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can only register to vote in Pennsylvania until today. I just see this as a political stunt. It\u2019s a stunt to mine people\u2019s data, to build up an email list for contacts, for campaigning, for mobilization,\u201d he said, referring to get-out-the-vote efforts and other voter engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n