Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his US$1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, who supports Republican presidential nominee former U.S. president Donald Trump, arrives to speak about voting during an America PAC Town Hall in Folsom, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 17, 2024. (Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters via CNN Newsource)

The Justice Department warned Elon Musk’s America PAC in recent days that his US$1 million sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN.

Musk, who has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump and is spending millions of dollars supporting his candidacy, has publicized the US$1 million prize by his political action committee aiming to increase voter registrations in hotly contested states.

Musk’s initial promise to pay prizes to registered voters immediately raised concerns from election law experts and some state officials who questioned whether it ran afoul of the law.

Federal law bars paying people to register to vote. The language of the petition currently promises US$1 million prizes to people chosen at random for signing a petition in support of First and Second Amendment freedoms. But to sign the petition, you must be registered to vote in specific states.

A letter from the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which investigates potential election-related law violations, went to Musk’s political action committee, according to people briefed on the matter.

CNN has reached out seeking comment from Musk, several email addresses listed on the super PAC’s website, the group’s treasurer, and Musk’s press team at the X platform.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

“We want to try to get over a million, maybe 2 million voters in the battleground states to sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment,” Musk said in announcing the sweepstakes at a Trump campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. “We are going to be awarding US$1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election.”

In response to a post claiming Musk was “paying to register Republicans,” Musk said winners “can be from any or no political party and you don’t even have to vote.” He did not address the potential legal problem of only opening the lottery to registered voters.

On Sunday, the second day of the sweepstakes, the super PAC reframed its messaging around the giveaway, describing the money as payment for a job. In social media posts, the group said winners would be “selected to earn US$1M as a spokesperson for America PAC” – and subsequently posted pro-Trump testimonial videos featuring the winners.

However, several election law experts who spoke to CNN pointed out that the fine print on Musk’s super PAC website explaining the official terms of entry did not change. Only petition signers can win the US$1 million prize, and signers “must be registered voters of Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.”

It’s not clear when Musk received the Justice Department’s letter and whether it prompted changes to messaging around the giveaway.