The US Department of Justice warned tycoon Elon Musk that his million-dollar election lottery for registered voters in swing states could violate federal law, CNN reported this Wednesday.
The Public Integrity Division of that cabinet, which investigates possible violations of the law related to the elections, sent a letter to Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, said the network with sources familiar with the case.
Federal law prohibits paying people to register to vote. Musk’s “lottery” promises one million dollars (about 926,226 euros) to people chosen at random for signing a petition in favor of the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution, which defend freedom of expression and the right to bear arms .
To sign it, however, you must be registered in the states considered key for the November 5 elections.
The owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX promised this Sunday to give up to a million dollars a day, randomly and until election day, to voters in Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada or Wisconsin.
Musk has defended himself against criticism that he is paying to register Republicans. The winners, as he said on X on October 20, “can be from any political party or none and they don’t even have to vote.”
For his part, the governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro, indicated in an interview with NBC that, while Musk has every right to express his opinions, “when this kind of money starts flowing into politics, it raises serious questions.” that people might want to take a look at.”
The America Pac reformulated the petition and highlighted that the winners were doing so as spokespersons for said committee. CNN pointed out that it is not clear if the letter sent by the Department of Justice has reached the magnate’s hands and if in that case it has led to changes in the message.
On November 5, the former governor (2017-2021) and Republican candidate, Donald Trump, and the Democratic vice president, Kamala Harris, will face each other in the presidential elections. According to the average of surveys carried out by the FiveThirtyEight website, the Democratic candidate leads Trump by 1.8 points, capturing 48.2% of voting intentions.
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