Elon Musk to Face Voter Fraud Lawsuit Over $1M Election Giveaway
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that voters must be permitted to sue billionaire Elon Musk, who they claim snookered them into signing a petition to keep the U.S. Constitution so he could win his contest to give away $1 million-a-day to people.
Jacqueline McAferty of Austin,Texas, had alleged that Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, unethically pressured her to give her identifying information as part of the giveaway toward the end of the 2024 election cycle, according to US District Judge Robert Pitman.
Elon Musk has started America PAC to support the Presidential bid of Donald Trump who is a Republican candidate.
A resident of Arizona, McAferty submitted claims that Musk and America PAC have requested voters in the seven battleground states to sign his petition under the promise that one million recipients would be chosen on a randomized basis, like a lottery, when in fact the voters did not have any actual opportunity to collect.
She mentioned that voters who signed also had to give their names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. Musk pointed out various “red flags” as evidence that he did not operate an illegal lottery when requesting a dismissal.
He stated that these included claims that the one million recipients were "selected to earn" the money and were expected to become spokespeople for America PAC, which undermines the notion that the payment was a “prize,”.
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However, the judge noted the other statements indicating that the defendants were "awarding" the one million, implying the money could be "won."
"It is plausible that plaintiff justifiably relied on those statements to believe that defendants were objectively offering her the chance to enter a random lottery--even if that is not what they subjectively intended to do," Pitman was quoted, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014.
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Musk also dismissed the idea that petition signers were harmed by providing their contact details. Pitman mentioned that an expert in political data brokerage could testify about the value of that information for voters in key battleground states. This lawsuit was filed on November 5, 2024, the Election Day.
The day before, a Philadelphia judge declined to stop Musk's giveaway, stating that the city's chief prosecutor did not prove it was an illegal lottery.