{"id":6168,"date":"2024-10-23T19:46:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T19:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/?p=6168"},"modified":"2024-10-23T20:27:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T20:27:38","slug":"47-for-the-47th-presidency-musk-tests-super-pac-limits-with-payouts-for-swing-state-voter-referrals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/?p=6168","title":{"rendered":"$47 for the 47th Presidency: Musk Tests Super PAC Limits with Payouts for Swing State Voter Referrals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Rice<\/em><\/p>\n

Associate Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Loyola University Chicago School of Law, JD 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

On October 7, 2024, Elon Musk\u2019s pro-Trump Super PAC, America PAC<\/a>, announced it would disburse $47 payments to residents of certain swing states who refer other swing state voters to sign a petition<\/a> pledging support for the First and Second Amendments. Musk said<\/a> on his social media platform, X, \u201c For every person you refer who is a swing state voter, you get $47! Easy money.\u201d Eligibility is limited to registered voters in seven key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Musk\u2019s goal is to reach 1 million signatures, which would amount to $47 million in payments to signatories.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s political strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s petition is an example of a commonly used campaign tool<\/a> to identify particularly energized voters who can be more closely targeted for get-out-the-vote operations come Election Day. By collecting signatories\u2019 personal data like name, email, phone number, mailing address, and the referrer\u2019s information, America PAC can build a database to more effectively strategize voter engagement efforts.<\/p>\n

In addition, Musk has spoken<\/a> on the power of referrals in politics, likening successful campaigning to how he has garnered a cult following of his electric car company, Tesla: by prioritizing word-of-mouth support over traditional advertisements. At a meeting of prominent billionaire conservative financiers, Musk said<\/a>, \u201cThe most important thing [we] could do was ask two people to support Mr. Trump, and urge them to ask two more. Two people by two people \u2014 that\u2019s how he would win.\u201d By incentivizing petition referrals and facilitating seemingly organic grassroots movements, Musk hopes to sway the political discourse in pivotal voting districts in favor of Trump.<\/p>\n

Pushing the legal limits<\/strong><\/p>\n

52 USC \u00a710307<\/a> prohibits paying or accepting payment for voting or registering to vote. Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer and director of political watchdog Documented said<\/a> on Musk\u2019s petition initiative, \u201cIs it legal? Probably . . . 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. Ultimately, what America PAC is doing here is spending money for voter data, which PACs and campaigns do all the time.\u201d UCLA School of Law professor Richard Hasen also remarked<\/a> that given the initiative does not directly pay participants to vote or register to vote, he considers Musk\u2019s PAC’s program compliant with campaign finance law.<\/p>\n

State laws vary on the legality of payment for gathering signatures for ballot initiatives and veto referendums at the rate of signatures collected. This practice, known as\u00a0pay-per-signature<\/a>\u00a0compensation, has been outlawed<\/a> in nine states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. However, it remains legal to pay petition circulators by the hour. Further, America PAC is based in Texas, which does not have any pay-per-signature compensation laws on the books.<\/p>\n

There are specific concerns in Wisconsin that the petition referrals would violate its election bribery law<\/a>. Former Milwaukee election chief Claire Woodall said<\/a> on the matter, “I just don’t think, on the surface, that it’s likely legal and going to hold up in Wisconsin. When you look at the statute, it’s very clear: you can’t pay someone on the basis of them voting or encouraging them to vote. In order to really sign the petition and receive payment, they are making voter registration requirement of that payment.\u201d Much of the general public also seems skeptical of Musk\u2019s efforts. Concerns about Musk\u2019s ability to “buy\u201d votes flooded the comments<\/a> on his post on X, in addition to larger policy concerns, like the potential promotion of petition signature fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Relaxed collaboration guidelines<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Federal Election Commission (FEC), the regulatory body responsible for policing campaign finance and federal elections, has long been criticized<\/a> for its leniency regarding PAC activity. While only individuals can donate<\/a> to traditional PACs capped at $5,000 annually, Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, and unions. But while traditional PACs can contribute<\/a> up to $10,000 to candidates, committees, coordinated communications,\u00a0and independent expenditures, Super PACs may only use their funds for outside spending<\/a>, like television advertisements or other promotional material, and cannot contribute directly to candidates or parties. The FEC enforces compliance with these caps, but previous efforts to curb excessive spending by wealthy special interests were struck down in the landmark case Citizens United\u00a0v.<\/em>\u00a0Federal Election Commission<\/a>, which effectively created Super PACs and greatly widened the scope of political activities PACs may engage in.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the FEC built on this momentum, issuing an advisory opinion<\/a> allowing federal political campaigns to work directly with outside organizations, including state PACs, nonprofits, and Super PACs, on paid canvassing programs. The Trump campaign has since taken advantage of the relaxed coordination rules. In April, Trump\u2019s political director James Blair invited<\/a> numerous conservative external organizations to an \u201centirely off-the-record, private,\u201d and \u201cinvite-only\u201d meeting\u00a0for a \u201cmeeting of the political minds,\u201d aimed at discussing \u201ccollaborat[ion]\u201d and \u201cpriorities and plans\u201d for the general election. Blair later referred to the FEC advisory opinion as a \u201cgame-changer.\u201d This has resulted in calls to Congress and the FEC to advance legislation<\/a> that would better define ‘coordination’ and prohibit dubious PAC-coordination practices, like redboxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ability to outsource costly canvassing operations to big-money groups that can accept unlimited donations is crucial as the Harris campaign shoots ahead<\/a> in fundraising; as of August 31, the date of the most recent FEC filings, Harris has raised $678.2 million<\/a>, while Trump raised $309.2 million<\/a>. Conversely, the top 10 pro-Trump Super PACs\u00a0have raised<\/a> $329.4 million, as opposed to the $256.6 million raised by the top 10 Super PACs\u00a0backing Harris. As the Trump campaign battles declining small-dollar contributions<\/a>, it will remain to be seen if the reliance on wealthy megadonors and Super PACs will pay off this cycle, especially given Trump\u2019s heavy populist messaging. So far, America PAC has contributed\u00a0over $87 million<\/a> to the Trump campaign and has indicated plans to spend more than $160 million<\/a> on field operations.<\/p>\n

Opening the door to unfettered influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

The PAC model functions to galvanize voters and concentrate funds to most effectively support candidates and parties. However, if left unchecked, the system runs the risk of leveraging dark money to undermine the democratic process and will of the voters. With seemingly unlimited funds and looser collaboration rules constraining Super PACs, Musk has the potential to profoundly influence the selection of the next president. Benjamin Soskis, a historian with the Urban Institute, noted<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m not sure there is a precedent in modern history to how Musk has inserted himself into the presidential race.\u201d As the nation enters unchartered territory this election season, voters must stay on the lookout for undue influence by wealthy donors and entities, safeguard their personal data when possible, and preserve their own voice amidst the onslaught of political advertisements, social media campaigns, and initiatives similar to Musk\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 7, 2024, Elon Musk\u2019s pro-Trump Super PAC, America PAC, announced it would disburse $47 payments to residents of certain swing states who refer other swing state voters to sign a petition pledging support for the First and Second Amendments. Musk said on his social media platform, X, \u201c For every person you refer who is a swing state voter, you get $47! Easy money.\u201d Eligibility is limited to registered voters in seven key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Musk\u2019s goal is to reach 1 million signatures, which would amount to $47 million in payments to signatories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[343,2262,485,571,695,706,818,2222,920,2261,1690,2016,2105],"class_list":["post-6168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections","tag-campaign-finance","tag-citizens-united","tag-congress","tag-data-privacy","tag-elections","tag-elon-musk","tag-fec","tag-federal-agencies","tag-fundraising","tag-pacs","tag-regulation","tag-trump","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6168"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6181,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions\/6181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/compliance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}