The $1M Question: Is Elon Musk’s ‘Petition’ Drive Actually Legal?

Legal Issues

from the just-flip-the-parties dept

Remember a few weeks ago when Elon Musk misleadingly claimed that George Soros was secretly “buying a propaganda machine to influence how you think”? Can you imagine the kind of shitstorm that would be playing out on ExTwitter and Fox News if George Soros were out there offering $1 million per day to people to sign a petition and encouraging them to vote?

It would be pandemonium.

But, it’s actually Elon Musk who is doing it and the press coverage seems pretty muted. Over the last few weeks, Elon has been offering smaller payments to get people to sign a petition the PAC he created was pushing. Originally, he was offering $47 to anyone in a swing state if they referred a friend to sign his petition. Then he upped that offer to $100 to anyone in Pennsylvania.

Over the weekend, though, he got a lot more attention by promising to give away $1 million each day until the election to a “random” signatory of the petition. Each day the giveaway will be in a different battleground area:

He claims he’s doing this to “maximize awareness of our petition to support The Constitution.”

The “petition” itself is a joke. There’s no “petition” at all. It just says that it’s a “petition in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms.” But there is no indication of who the petition is for. There is no further text of the petition beyond what I quoted. It’s literally just the following:

The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.

The idea that Elon Musk supports the First Amendment is laughable, given that he has regularly acted in ways that suppress free speech, including suing multiple critics for their free speech. He remains actively engaged in at least three cases where he sued people and organizations over their speech.

But, more to the point, this isn’t an actual “petition.” It’s a scammy “get out the vote” effort at a time when the Trump campaign has handed a large portion of its “get out the vote” effort to Elon, and that’s reportedly been flailing. Again, nothing is being done with the petition except that it is being used to collect names, addresses, and email addresses which Elon’s team can use to push people to vote:

It’s traditional list building. By framing it as being about “the First and Second Amendment,” they’re expecting to find likely Trump voters (though it’s possible that the $1 million lottery might incentivize non-Trump supporters to sign just for the hell of it, polluting the list). The fact that you have to be “registered to vote” in a swing state to receive the payout makes it clear that this is a petition about voting, and that appears to make it illegal.

On Saturday, Rick Hasen, one of the leading election law experts in the world, wrote that it was clear this violates election law designed to stop vote buying, as the law applies to paying people to entice them to register:

Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal. See 52 U.S.C. 10307(c): “Whoever knowingly or willfully gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence in the voting district for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register or vote, or conspires with another individual for the purpose of encouraging his false registration to vote or illegal voting, or pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both…” (Emphasis added.)

See also the DOJ Election Crimes Manual at 44: “The bribe may be anything having monetary value, including cash, liquor, lottery chances, and welfare benefits such as food stamps. Garcia, 719 F.2d at 102. However, offering free rides to the polls or providing employees paid leave while they vote are not prohibited. United States v. Lewin, 467 F.2d 1132, 1136 (7th Cir.1972). Such things are given to make it easier for people to vote, not to induce them to do so. This distinction is important. For an offer or a payment to violate Section 10307(c), it must have been intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.… Moreover, payments made for some purpose other than to induceor reward voting activity, such as remuneration for campaign work, do not violate this statute. See United States v. Canales 744 F.2d 413, 423 (5th Cir. 1984) (upholding conviction because jury justified in inferring that payments were for voting, not campaign work). Similarly, Section 10307(c) does not apply to payments made to signature-gatherers for voter registrations such individuals may obtain. However, such payments become actionable under Section 10307(c) if they are shared with the person being registered.” (Emphases added.)

Another legal expert, campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer, told the NY Times that this was “alarming”:

“I thought the initial arrangement was lawful because the PAC was just paying one person who referred another person to sign a petition that itself made no reference to registration or voting. The latest version of this plan comes much closer to the legal line,” he said. “There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law, which prohibits giving anything of value to induce or reward a person for registering to vote.”

I am sure that Musk, Trump, and their supporters will insist that this isn’t vote buying, since it’s not about voting, just about “awareness of the petition.” But the only purpose behind the petition is to build a list for get out the vote efforts. And the inclusion of the voter registration in a swing state to be eligible for a payout kinda gives away the game.

Again, I challenge literally anyone who supports this to say they’d be totally fine with George Soros doing the same thing. If they won’t respond affirmatively to that, they are admitting they are full of shit.

While the fines for violating this law are small ($10,000), they can also include up to five years in prison. I doubt Musk is seriously facing time behind bars (he’s rich, the law doesn’t apply to him), it is notable.

Just a few weeks ago, Musk made one of his conspiracy theory nonsense claims about how if Harris won the election, she might throw him in jail. That was such a stupid claim at the time, because that’s not how any of this works. And, if Harris is (as Musk & crew assert) just a continuation of Joe Biden’s administration, the Biden admin has not only not thrown Musk in jail, they’ve given him billions of dollars in contracts.

But maybe what Elon really meant was that he was going to break the law as much as possible to try to support Trump and that’s why he would end up in jail if Harris won…

Filed Under: 1st amendment, 2nd amendment, campaign finance, donald trump, elon musk, list building, lottery, paying people to vote, petition, rick hasen, swing states