Two swing states are investigating Elon Musk’s new political action committee (PAC), the America PAC, for potentially defrauding voters.
Officials from North Carolina and Michigan—two battleground states in the upcoming presidential election—have said they are looking into America PAC after a CNBC report showed the PAC collected data from people in swing states under the guise of registering them to vote but never actually registered them.
Before CNBC’s reporting, America PAC's website had a large button on its homepage that read, “Register to Vote.” If a hopeful voter clicked that button, the site then prompted them to enter their email address and ZIP code. If they entered a ZIP code from a state considered non-competitive, such as California or Tennessee, it would direct them to that state’s official voter registration page.
But if a user entered a ZIP code from a battleground state, they would then be prompted to answer a page full of detailed personal questions, such as the exact address of their home, phone number, and age. After completing the questionnaire, the user would receive a “Thank You!” page, never having been led to register, despite handing over valuable personal information.
The “Register to Vote” button, at the time of writing, is gone from the America PAC website.
The North Carolina Board of Elections told CNBC on Monday it has opened an investigation of Musk's America PAC after it received a complaint.
"North Carolina law makes it a crime for someone to fail to submit a voter's registration form if that person has told a voter that they would be submitting the voter's registration form," the board's spokesman, Patrick Gannon, told CNBC.
It is unclear if Musk’s PAC was making that exact claim, that it would submit a voter’s registration form, by collecting the data or by having a button called “register to vote.”
Brett Swearingin, an attorney at Michigan firm Miller Johnson, said that after reviewing North Carolina’s statute on this issue, he didn’t believe the website violated the law, because it didn’t claim to register voters with the official registration form.
“When you're dealing with the law, there are things that sound dubious or shady, and then there’s when something actually violates a law,” Swearingin said. “And the way that this statute is written, it seems very clear that they're only dealing with the particular form that has been promulgated by the state board of elections.”
He added he has a lot of respect for Michigan’s secretary of state office, so if there is a legal issue, “I have no doubt they’ll figure it out.” But in his preliminary review, he didn’t see anything.
Mary Massaroon, a partner at law firm Plunkett Cooney’s election practice, said the site was troubling, but declined to say whether America PAC had committed a crime.
“I would be concerned about any website or social media communication that suggests the viewers will be given information about how to register to vote if they provide personal information, but then fails to provide any information about how to register to vote,” Massaroon wrote in an email to Fortune. “I think it is appropriate for the Michigan Secretary of State to look into the question.”
The links on America PAC’s website were working initially, but then stopped working, a source familiar with the matter told Fortune. They didn’t believe the PAC had done anything illegal, and the organization will soon release a new website, the source added.
America PAC has given $798,500 to Raconteur Media, a digital marketing agency, for “texting services” and “printing,” according to federal filings. The agency did not answer multiple requests for comment.
The states' probing is the latest trouble for America PAC. In late July, the super PAC abruptly ended its relationship with In Field Strategies, to which it had given $15 million to conduct canvassing operations across the nation. It is still unclear what will happen to the money.
Canvassers and project managers were suddenly left without jobs, in far-flung places throughout the U.S., a former project manager at In Field told Fortune.
“One minute I was waiting to receive literature, and the next minute I received a phone call telling me the project was pulled,” the project manager said. They added that since the shakeup happened during the CrowdStrike outage, many people struggled to find flights home.
“It was several days of chaos, to be putting it lightly,” they said. “Overall, it… threw a wrench into our operations, again, that’s just an understatement. “
It is unclear why In Field was pulled from the project. However, the former project manager said it would be part of many shakeups happening in the future of the PAC.
Chris LaCivita, one of Mr. Trump’s senior aides, praised the move on X.
“New Program 100% better than the old gang,” LaCivita said. “Solidly support this effort!”
