Does Musk’s daily $1m giveaway constitute election interference?

Billionaire Elon Musk has pledged to award $1m every day until election day in the United States on November 5 to randomly selected registered voters who sign a petition to “support the constitution” launched by his pro-Donald Trump America Political Action Committee (PAC).

Musk announced the giveaway on Saturday at an America PAC-hosted rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.The scheme has come under scrutiny by legal experts as well as Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, who on Sunday asked law enforcement to launch an investigation into potential election interference.

Why is Elon Musk giving away money?

From October 17 to November 5, Musk said he will give $1m to a randomly selected winner each day if:

• He or she is a registered voter.
• He or she is from one of the following swing states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin or North Carolina.
• He or she has signed an online petition created by America PAC.

Musk, 53 – who is a founder and the CEO of the electric car company Tesla and rocket producer SpaceX and owns the social media network X – has a net worth of $274.4bn, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list.

What is in the America PAC petition?

Musk has repeatedly called the petition one that “upholds the US Constitution”.

More precisely, the petition on a webpage belonging to the America PAC website, says: “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 webpage states, “EARN 1,000,000” in big, bold letters, flanked by two money bag emojis. Individuals who sign are supposed to enter their first name, last name, email address and cellphone number.

Next to the cellphone number field in the form, a note says the number is required only to confirm that the petition signee is a legitimate voter and “no other purpose”.

“Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the constitution,” the website added.

On Friday, the day before the giveaway announcement, the Reuters news agency reported that Alysia McMillan, who canvassed for America PAC in Wisconsin, said field organisers had reported they were missing their daily goals in terms of enlisting voters and were expecting to fall short of their ultimate goal of contacting 450,000 voters by election day.

In Pennsylvania, each registered voter who signs the petition will automatically receive $100 as compensation, and an additional $100 is paid for each person who signs upon their referral. In other swing states, individuals will get $47 per successful referral.

The date the petition was created and the number of signatures amassed so far were not visible on the America PAC webpage.

What is America PAC?

PACs raise and spend money to advocate for or against a candidate in an election. Musk formed America PAC in May to support former President Trump’s election bid this year. On October 16, it was reported that Musk had poured $75m over three months into America PAC.

Originally from South Africa, Musk obtained US citizenship in 2002. For years, he voted for Democratic Party candidates.