Elon Musk’s PAC offers $47 payouts to refer swing state voters to sign petition

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC is offering people $47 if they successfully get one registered swing-state voter to sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution. 

“Easy money,” Musk said in a post about the initiative.

The payout offer appears to be a way to financially encourage voter registration of individuals who might prefer Republican candidate Donald Trump in swing states. Paying individuals directly to register to vote is illegal, but America PAC’s petition appears to skirt laws that forbid certain types of election-related payments, paying referrers of registered voters instead. Both Musk and America PAC have vocally encouraged swing-state voter registration ahead of the mandatory deadlines. A representative of America PAC declined to comment.

The monetary offer was widely shared on X, Musk’s social media platform.

Over the weekend, X repurposed the account handle “@america,” which used to belong to a different account, for Musk’s America PAC. It is labeled as an official X organization. The account has since promoted the pro-Constitution petition, swing-state voter registration and the $47 offer. 

“I’ve not seen anything like this,” said Dr. Richard Hasen, a professor at UCLA School of Law and an NBC News election law analyst. “He has mobilized the platform to be in Trump’s corner in a way that is far more blatant and direct than anything we’ve seen from any other social media platform or traditional media platform.”

Hasen said he doesn’t think that Musk has broken any campaign finance laws and is within his free speech rights to steer X in the direction of his political preferences, as long as he discloses his connections with Trump. 

“The law prohibits paying people to vote, to register to vote, to vote in a particular way or not to vote in a federal election. And this is none of those things,” Hasen said. 

Musk’s America PAC was formed in May and has previously stoked controversy with its unusual tactics to encourage swing-state voter registration. The super PAC has received donations from Musk, who officially endorsed Trump after his assassination attempt in July, and his Silicon Valley peers. The organization has run ads on Facebook and Instagram for voter registration in swing states.

In August, the PAC’s website collected personal data from users under the guise of voter registration, but only directed them to complete the process if they were in a swing state. Election officials in Michigan and North Carolina investigated whether the website was misleading voters. Michigan said it hadn’t found any evidence of violating state campaign finance law and a spokesperson for America PAC declined to comment to NBC News at the time beyond the letters it sent to state officials. 

Political finance tracker and nonprofit organization OpenSecrets reports that America PAC has spent more than $77 million so far, with over $41 million supporting Republicans and over $35 million directly opposing Democrats. 

Now, the America PAC website displays posts on X from conservative accounts and advertises paid positions to help increase voter registration and turnout in swing states. “Pay starts at $30 per hour, with bonuses for performance,” the website says. 

“It seems like a lot of money to be offering,” Hasen said. “Only someone who is extremely rich would even consider it, and we’ll see if it actually happens.”