Managing Partner and leader of Kleinbard’s Political Law group, Matthew Haversitck was quoted in BNN Bloomberg on the legality of Elon Musk’s super political action committee, America PAC, daily prize of $1 million to a registered voter in a swing state everyday until Election Day. Musk announced that a randomly selected signatory of a petition calling for free speech and the right to bear arms will be selected for the prize. He also announced that a five-day window in which registered Pennsylvania voters — and whoever referred them to register — will get $100 each for signing the petition. But, the question remains does this violate federal, election or sweepstake laws?
Federal law does prohibit paying people to register to vote, however Musk is asking registered voters to pledge to support to the petition with language that doesn’t violate the statute that bars paying people to vote or register to vote.
“It’s not legal to offer money to register to vote,” said Matthew Haverstick, a political law attorney at Kleinbard LLC in Philadelphia who has represented Republicans in the state. “But that’s not what this is. It’s an offer to people who are registered to vote, and that
includes people already registered.”
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