The entrepreneur, who is now one of the world’s richest tech billionaires, has promised to hand out $1m (£766,000) per day to a registered voter in key swing states from today until US presidential election day on 5 November. The recipients will be selected randomly from people signing a pro-US Constitution petition by Mr Musk’s campaign group America PAC, which he established to support the Republican nominee Donald Trump in his candidacy to return to the White House.
The first lottery-style cheque was given out to a surprised attendee at a town hall event in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. The same day, another cheque was handed out on Sunday. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who supports Kamala Harris, called Mr. Musk’s strategy “deeply concerning.” Shapiro told NBC News’ Meet the Press that law enforcement might want to look at the payments.
Those battleground states eligible to vote in the contest are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina – states that will in the end determine who wins the White House. Election law expert Rick Hasen blogged on his personal Election Law Blog that he believed Mr Musk’s offer was “clearly illegal”.
Federal law prohibits anyone from paying “either for registration to vote or for voting” either the registration fee, or the payment to vote or in exchange for whatever else, with a possible $10,000 fine or a five-year prison sentence. While Mr Musk technically is asking the voters to sign a form, Mr Hasen questioned what was really intended behind the strategy.
“Who can sign the petitions? Only registered voters in swing states, which is what makes it illegal,” said Mr Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) law school. Those who sign the petition – which pledges to support free speech and gun rights – must submit their contact details, potentially allowing America PAC to contact them about their vote.
both Mr. Musk and America PAC have been solicited for comment. Campaigns and political action committees live or die on the backs of tactics like petition signing, survey requests or merchandise purchases by seeking to amass gargantuan databases of voter data. That then enables them to target voters more precisely, or solicit funds from supporters already on the precinct-controlled plantation.
Mr Musk is paying Pennsylvania voters $100 to sign the petition and $100 for each person they refer who signs. The payoff elsewhere in battleground states is $47 per referral. But the strategy may be covered by a loophole under US election law because no-one is being directly paid to vote – despite introducing money into a process that could identify likely Trump voters.
In the US, it is unlawful to provide to pay individuals to vote-not only to vote for a specific candidate, but even just to take the day off and go out to vote. That’s what forced ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s to make its product free to everyone on election day in 2008, even though the company had originally intended to distribute ice cream to only those individuals who were wearing an “I voted” sticker.
While canvassing on Sunday, Trump was asked about Mr Musk’s giveaway. “I haven’t followed that,” he said, adding that he speaks to Mr Musk often and he is a “friend”. The founder of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, formerly Twitter, has emerged as a key Trump supporter Musk launched America PAC in July with the aim of supporting the former president’s campaign.
That is $75m (£57.5m) to the group, which quickly became, for all intents and purposes a central player in Trump’s election bid so soon.
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Massive Campaign Push by Musk
The Musk political advertising campaign, mainly residing in social media constructs such as X/Twitter (which he owns), YouTube, and Facebook, is oriented toward swaying voters who are undecided in competitive swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, or Arizona. It focuses on themes of economics, environmental concerns, and innovation—sectors in which Musk’s companies have played a pretty important role.
According to reports, Musk has been shelling out around $1 million per day with no signs of slowing down as Election Day approaches. The majority of the ads frame Musk’s vision for the future, comprising policies favoring technological advancement, space exploration, and lesser regulation on industries such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence. Most of the commercials are full of “American innovation” and the country’s necessity to be the technology leader in almost every market around the globe.
Concerns Over Influence
Critics from both sides are warning about the outsized influence of Musk in the election, added to the already existing influence through his Silicon Valley empire. Some worry that such enormous resources give him an unfair advantage over key states, allowing a single individual effectively to have an oversized effect on the outcome of a national election.
“‘It’s profoundly troubling that one billionaire can spend this amount of money in a concentrated way to try to influence voters in swing states,'” says a spokesman for the non-partisan watchdog group Democracy Now. “This kind of financial power undermines democratic process by amplifying one person’s voice over millions of others.”
Democratic leaders, too, have protested, accusing Musk of trying to enforce political wishes that suit his business interests. “Elon Musk’s huge ad spend is an attempt to convert our democracy into a playground for billionaires,” one of the most prominent Democratic senators said. “It is dangerous when people with enormous wealth try to shape the political future of the country in a way that serves their bottom line.”
Supporters See a Visionary
In contrast, supporters of Musk claim that he is only leveraging his wherewithal to advance a vision for the future shared by many Americans. They observe that Musk’s business ventures—specifically renewable energy, electric automobiles, and space travel—are aligned with most of the problems that plague the globe, including climatic change and technological ingenuity.
“He is not doing anything different from what large corporations or political action committees do when they spend money on ads, said a political strategist who works closely with conservative-leaning tech figures. “Elon just has personal funding behind his beliefs,” said he.
His ads emphasize innovation and future-thinking policies-not least of which is the role the U.S. will play in a rapidly-changing global economy. “His ads make a case for the U.S. to lead in space exploration and green energy. That’s the type of issues for the future and the track record of Musk is clean,” said a supporter of the entrepreneur-turned-politician.
Accelerating Change of Political Presence
The sprees raise larger questions about the role of wealth in American politics. Billionaire donors have burst onto the national scene as their billions of dollars in personal fortunes help to fund election campaigns. Campaign finance laws may closely limit direct donations to candidates, but the rise of Super PACs and independent expenditures enable individuals of the sort -; take Elon Musk -; to shape the outcome of elections indirectly.
With Musk’s daily spending rivaling or surpassing the budgets of entire political campaigns, some are calling for reforms to limit how much any one person can contribute to shaping the political landscape.
“Allowing billionaires to pour this kind of money into political ads without checks is a slippery slope,” said a political scientist from Georgetown University. “We’ve seen growing inequality in the economic realm, and now we’re seeing it in the political realm. It’s no longer about the power of your vote—it’s about the power of your wallet.”
What’s Next?
Now that the final stretch of this election cycle is nearing, there is no sign of an slowdown in Musk’s ad campaign. Millions already spent, tens of millions more likely to be spent before the November election, his efforts may turn out to be decisive factors in forming the outcome in some of these swing states.
Given this predicament, the debate over his political involvements is likely to gain traction, as both critics and supporters grapple with the even larger implications of billionaires influencing American democracy in such unprecedented ways.
Whichever way this election goes, Musk’s unprecedented campaign spending marks a new chapter in the role of money and tech in politics, and sooner rather than later, it will raise questions about how ultra-wealthy influence will shape future elections.
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