Elon Musk Offers Pennsylvania Voters $100 Each As He Drums Up Trump Support

Elon Musk is offering $100 to registered voters in Pennsylvania to sign a pro-Donald Trump petition.
“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. Earn money for supporting something you already believe in,” the SpaceX CEO wrote to his more than 200 million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
Musk linked to America PAC, a political action organization he founded in support of Trump’s presidential campaign.
The petition reads, “The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.”
It offers a further $47 for each subsequent registered voter someone refers to the petition. While this requires a signed IRS form for payments of $600 or more, there appears to be no limit on the number of registered voters that can be referred.
The stated goal of the petition is to register 1 million voters across swing states, only allowing registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina to sign and claim $100 before the offer expires on October 21 (the deadline for voter registration).
Similarly, the America PAC homepage is recruiting people who “are interested in working on increasing voter registration and voter turnout” for $30 an hour and “bonuses for performance.”
While federal law dictates that paying individuals to vote or accepting payment for voter registration or voting is an offense, compensating people for signing petitions or for convincing others to sign petitions is not against the law.
Campaign-finance lawyer Brendan Fischer told The New York Times that “the fact that they are only paying the referrer rather than the signatory further insulates the PAC from any accusations that they are buying votes,” adding that America PAC is spending money to collect voter data, which is what standard PACs and campaigns routinely do.
Musk posted details of the petition shortly after hosting an America Pac town hall in Pennsylvania that was streamed live on X, receiving 8.5 million views.
During the broadcast the Tesla CEO said, “I can’t emphasize enough that Pennsylvania is, I think the linchpin in this election, and this election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization.”
Musk addressed issues including crime (“We don’t want to be in the Mad Max movie”) and the border wall (“The border looks like World War Z, okay, it’s like zombie apocalypse”), and government spending (“The federal government is spending America into bankruptcy”) before going on to hold a question-and-answer session with attendees.
One attendee asked, “What do we do now to make sure we get Donald Trump across the finish line in Pennsylvania and everywhere else in this country?”
Musk replied, “Fundamentally, for the next three days, just, everyone needs to focus on registering friends, family, acquaintances, everyone you know, because if you’re not registered by Monday—that’s why I’m being repetitive about this and really emphasizing this—anyone not registered by Monday evening, or if they’re registered incorrectly, the vote won’t count. They won’t be able to vote. We have three days.”
“This election could be decided by a handful of people, it could just be that a little bit of extra effort on voter registration decides the entire future of civilization,” added Musk.
Not all of Musk’s fans on X were decided. One follower, @SpringTesla, said: “I am sitting on my ballot struggling to decide my vote, I believe Elon is incredibly intelligent and wise and brutally honest. If it were not for Jan 6, I might not have problems voting for Trump. I wish there is a line to vote for Elon because he qualifies my vote beyond any doubt.”
Newsweek reached out to Elon Musk for comment via email.