Tesla CEO says his America Pac will give money to those who sign petition to support first and second amendments

Elon Musk said on Saturday that America Pac (the Donald Trump-allied political action committee Musk founded), will give $1m daily until the presidential election to someone who signs his petition that simply seems to be a way to incentivize Republicans in battleground states to register to vote. “We are going to be awarding $1m randomly to people who have signed the petition,” Musk informed at a town hall event in Pennsylvania. “One of the challenges we’re having is how do we get the public to know about this petition because the legacy media won’t report on it.” “I figured, so how do we get people to know about it? I think this news will really fly. So every day between now and the election we will be awarding $1m, starting tonight,” Musk said, before giving an oversized lottery-style cheque to the first winner of the prize draw.

The petition requests people to pledge their support for the first and second amendments, but the small print says that to be entitled for any of the monetary awards, signatories need to be registered voters in the key battleground states. In doing so, the petition seems to be designed to push Trump voters to register to vote in the presidential election so that they can be in contention for the $1m prize. Signing the petition is also now a condition to attend Musk’s town hall events.

The legitimacy of the America Pac $1m prize draw is unclear, and a justice department spokesperson did not instantly respond to an inquiry. But many legal experts said on Saturday the petition seemed to violate federal election laws that forbids paying or offering to pay for somebody to register to vote or actually vote under title 52 of the US code. As per the justice department’s election crimes manual, for an offer of payment to violate federal election law, it must have been proposed to induce or reward the potential voter for engaging in one or more acts essential to cast a ballot.

The election crimes manual differentiates between making it easier for people to vote, such as providing free rides to a polling station, and inducing people to vote, which is unlawful. UCLA law professor Rick Hasen stated in his blog that the America Pac $1m prize offer seems to be an illicit scheme because it offered the payments to registered voters. “Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” he wrote.