Elon Musk plans to randomly hand out $1 million checks to people who signed a petition on his Donald Trump-supporting political action committee.
Those checks — which he promised to deliver every day until Election Day as part of a voter-registration push in swing states — have so far gone to three Republican voters in Pennsylvania.
All three winners have already voted in November’s elections, according to public records from the secretary of state’s office reviewed by The Independent.
The winners, who have been registered Republican voters for several years if not decades, had already returned their mail-in ballots earlier this month before Musk handed them novelty-sized checks for $1 million.
“By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments,” according to the petition from America PAC. The PAC’s goal is to get 1 million voters in seven swing states “to sign in support of the Constitution, especially freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.”
But the $1 million prize is “exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.”
Musk’s scheme — which former prosecutors and election law experts say is deploying a potentially illegal vote-buying mechanism — is now raising questions about whether it’s even effective at encouraging new voters to register in battleground states, or merely drawing in existing fans of Musk and Trump.
The deadlines to register to vote in time for Election Day have already passed in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
The first winner, 27-year-old John Dreher of Cumberland County, was brought on stage at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Saturday. He cast his ballot on October 4.
“When he called me, the first thing that happened, I screamed,” Dreher said in a video on Musk’s America PAC account.
“I was pumping my arms in the air,” he said. “Actually meeting Elon, I kind of forgot about the money for a little bit … He’s such an influential figure for guys my age who are working hard every day.”
Sign our petition to support the Constitution of the United States! https://t.co/pYZ1B7l9SX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2024
The second winner — Kristine Fishell of Allegheny County — received her prize when she appeared onstage in Pittsburgh with Musk on Sunday. Her mail-in ballot was received by the secretary of state’s office five days earlier on October 16.
Fishell had also contributed more than $500 to Republican campaigns in 2020, according to federal campaign finance records.
“Hearing my name was the surprise of a lifetime,” she said in a video from America PAC. “To win $1 million is crazy. I was super excited and I still am.”
America PAC posted photos of Shannon Tomei of Allegheny County receiving her oversized check on Monday night. Her ballot was received by election officials on October 7.
The Independent has requested comment from the award winners.
Shannon from McKees Rocks, PA was today’s recipient of $1M for signing our petition to support the Constitution
— America (@america) October 21, 2024
Every day until Election Day, a person who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAChttps://t.co/TMeyWUhbrH pic.twitter.com/UwwmoRwUv8
Under federal law, it is illegal to pay, offer to pay, or accept payment for registering to vote or voting. Election law experts have argued that Musk’s scheme may have created a roundabout illegal incentive to get people to register to vote by allowing only registered voters to be eligible for his prize money.
But it’s unclear what that could mean if the winners are previously registered voters who cast their ballots before the prize money was even announced.
In either case, Musk’s stunt is “just the latest — and most egregious — example of wealthy special interests distorting our political process at the expense of everyday voters,” according to Adav Noti, executive director of Campaign Legal Center.
“It is extremely problematic that the world’s richest man can throw his money around in an attempt to directly influence the outcome of this election. This is not how our democracy should work,” he said in a statement to The Independent. “It is illegal to buy votes, it is illegal to buy voter registration, and the Department of Justice has the power to enforce these important laws through civil or criminal action.”
