Until the cash is in your pocket, the money isn't yours: Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC did not give away $1m on wednesday as promised. But it resumed the cash-for-voters giveaway on Thursday, despite a warning from the Department of Justice that it violated federal law.
To be eligible for the prize, the person will need to be a registered voter in one of the seven key battleground states. The giveaway has drawn criticism and triggered concerns from legal experts who point to federal election law, which says anyone who "pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting," could face up to a $10,000 fine and five-year prison sentence. Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has also criticized the giveaway, saying Musk is free to express his views, but "when you start flowing this kind of money into politics, I think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at."
The question always is "why do the rich and businesses get warnings rather than enforcement?" It's because the cost of enforcement is proportional to the target's ability to defend themselves and this encourages calculated indifference to misconduct by elites. The poor can't fight back, but it would take years and vast sums of public money to force Elon to pay so much as a library fine. They aren't going to stop this—only you can by obviating the effect of it, by voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz within the next two weeks.
