Elon Musk announces $1M giveaway for voters who sign petition in battleground states

Billionaire Elon Musk has upped his financial offer for registered swing state voters to sign a conservative-leaning petition, announcing Saturday that his pro-Trump super PAC would be awarding $1 million to a random signee every day from now until the election.

Musk initially launched the petition and referral offer in early October. His America PAC released the petition, which is in support of the Constitution’s First and Second amendments.

The offer grew this week from $47 to $100 for registered Pennsylvania voters, and on Saturday, Musk unveiled the $1 million giveaway at a town hall event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Musk said Saturday the goal is to get between 1 million and 2 million voters in battleground states to sign the petition “because I think this sends a crucial message to our elected politicians to, you know, care about the outcome in battleground states.”

The new giveaway appeared to refer to anyone in a battleground state who signed the petition.

Musk delivered the first of the checks Saturday to a man who emerged from the crowd to loud cheers, saying the man “had no idea” he’d be selected. “The only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be a spokesperson for the petition, and that’s it, really,” Musk said.

The man took the microphone, thanking Musk and saying he was a “big fan” of his.

Saturday’s announcement, Musk admitted, is an effort to get the “legacy media” to report on the petition.

After a pro-Trump town hall event Thursday in Pennsylvania, at which Musk pushed a debunked voter fraud conspiracy theory, he announced in an X post that he was doubling his financial offer for engagement with the petition for Pennsylvanians, which had been set at $47.

“If you’re a registered Pennsylvania voter, you & whoever referred you will now get $100 for signing our petition in support of free speech & right to bear arms,” Musk wrote.

For that offer, he said checks will be mailed to voter addresses on file in Pennsylvania. For the original offer, Musk promised to mail a check to anyone who refers a registered swing state voter to sign it.

He said the deadline to sign the petition is Monday night, the day that Pennsylvania voter registration closes. 

The program appears to avoid breaking campaign finance laws, which make it illegal to pay people to register to vote, because the payment is for signing the petition and referring registered voters to sign the petition, rather than for registration. 

However, Musk, the world’s richest person, has vocally urged swing state voters in Pennsylvania to vote for former President Donald Trump, saying Thursday that the 2024 election will decide the “fate of America” and “the fate of Western civilization.” 

Previously vowing to stay apolitical, Musk has sharply veered to support conservatives since taking over X, formerly Twitter. Over the summer, he endorsed Trump and has ramped up various means of support for the candidate. Recent disclosures show that Musk has donated $75 million to his own pro-Trump super PAC. 

Musk also joined Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and plans to continue hosting town halls in the state, which he said is the “linchpin” for the election, through Monday. 

A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment Saturday night about Musk’s million-dollar giveaway.

On X, where he is the most-followed person with over 200 million followers, Musk has repeatedly pushed false and inflammatory claims on topics including immigration, free speech and voter fraud. 

Musk’s America PAC has also paid to run ads on Facebook and Instagram for voter registration in swing states. In August, the PAC collected voter data but only directed certain zip codes to an official way to register to vote, a move that courted significant controversy. Election officials in Michigan and North Carolina investigated whether the website was misleading voters, but Michigan said it hadn’t found any evidence of violating state campaign finance law.