Trump suck-up and South African megalomaniac fascist Elon Musk has been doling out one million dollar checks in an online lottery to get people in battleground states to sign a gun rights and free speech petition, but only if they're a registered voter. This roundabout tactic of paying to get voters registered is under scrutiny by legal experts who note that paying a person to register to vote or to vote is illegal and punishable up to a $10,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison. From Reuters:
"The giveaway could be interpreted as Musk using his wealth to attempt to influence the tightly contested presidential race between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Musk's America PAC seeks to play a major role in helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states that could decide the election.
Terms of the petition state that signers must be registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin - all states that are likely to decide the election. [snip]
While Musk’s promotion does not directly induce people to register, its timing and focus on battleground states indicate the petition component is merely a pretext, according to Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who said the sweepstakes is therefore illegal.
“I think signing the petition is irrelevant to the legal question because you must be a registered voter. It doesn’t matter if you add other conditions,” Hasen said, adding that the U.S. Department of Justice election crimes manual specifically cites lottery chances as potentially illegal payments.
Adav Noti of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center agreed, saying it is illegal to give out money on the condition that people are registered to vote." (our emphasis)
