Tech billionaire Elon Musk is being sued over his lottery-style election incentive.
Musk has been giving away $US1 million ($AU1.52 million) a day to a random winner — selected from a pool of people who’ve signed an online petition “to support free speech”.
Now, public prosecutors in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania argue the lottery is “unlawful”.
They’ve accused Musk of “deploying deceptive, vague or misleading statements” to lure people into making political pledges in a bid to win money.
Election funds
Election candidates in the U.S. rely heavily on political donations to fund their campaigns.
This can include things like ads on social media, TV, and radio, as well as staff, hiring rally venues and travel costs.
Donations above $200 are made public.However, individuals are capped at giving a maximum $3,300 donation to a presidential candidate during a general election.
Due to this cap, many U.S. donors give money to “political action committees” (PACs).
PACs are organisations that pool together donations from members and direct these funds towards political campaigns.
They are often run by businesses and unions. Some types of PACs have no limit on how much money can be raised.
There are strict rules banning individual candidates from attempting to influence a PAC.
Musk – who Forbes estimates is worth almost $US250 billion ($AU372 billion) – set up “America PAC” to support Donald Trump’s re-election efforts, after endorsing him in July.
Lottery
Earlier this month, Muskto give away $1 million per day until election day through his PAC.
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In a post to X, he wrote: “Every day, from now through Nov 5, AmericaPAC will be giving away $1M to someone… who signed our petition to support free speech & the right to bear arms!”
Musk has also promised signatories a $47 ($AU70) reward “for each registered voter you refer that signs this petition.” For registered voters in Pennsylvania, this incentive is $100.
The petition lottery is only open to voters in seven states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – where polling shows a tight race between Trump and Harris.
These are called “swing states” because they have switched between voting for Republican and Democratic candidates between elections.
Winners have already been announced on the PAC’s social media account, displaying photos of them receiving large cheques.
The petition doesn’t explicitly mention Trump.
District Attorney
This week, Pennsylvania public prosecutor Lawrence Krasneragainst Musk for “running an illegal lottery”.
He accused Musk and America PAC of enticing people “to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million.”
“That is a lottery.”
In a statement, Krasner said he wants to protect “the public from interference with the integrity of elections”.
America PAC
America PAC has not publicly addressed the lawsuit. It continues to announce winners.
Krasner alleges America PAC’s petition has received over 280,000 signatures in total.
Last week, U.S. outlet CNN reported the country’s Department of Justice sent a letter notifying America PAC that the $1 million lottery could breach federal law against paying people to register to vote.
