Elon Musk has announced he will be giving away $1 million a day to specific people who sign a petition and are a registered swing state voter.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO announced his plan to give $1 million away every day until November 5 to a random person located within a registered swing state and who has signed a petition from his political action committee. Musk's announcement has sparked a legal inquiry into whether or not its a violation of federal law to pay to register to vote or cast a ballot.
Richard Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law School, spoke to Vox and stated he believes "there's a strong argument that there's potential criminal liability here, so at the very least [the Department of Justice] should be investigating and should be warning people not to be doing this."
This is how it works. Registered voters within Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, or Wisconsin are all eligible and, to win, will need to sign the petition. The petition claims to be a "Petition in Favor of Free Speech and the Right to Bear Arms". Musk believes the upcoming election will be decided upon who wins Pennsylvania, hence his concentration on the swing states in general since his public endorsement of former US President Donald Trump.
"I think this is kind of fun, and you know, it seems like a good use of money basically," said the Tesla CEO