The winner will be chosen from those who sign a petition by the tech billionaire's Trump-supporting campaign group.
      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        461·
        1 month ago

        Every billionaire is an asshole.

        Somewhere around 10 million in value you hit a point where every standard luxury is affordable for the rest of your life… maybe I’ll excuse people who make 50 million - but the wealth these assholes have is from greedy hoarding, there are coworkers or employees that have been fucked over so that the billionaire could steal all that value.

        Maybe they did it abstractly through speculation (which absolutely comes at the expense of others) or maybe directly (like Zuckerberg fucking over other early employees)… even Taylor Swift is guilty of this - it’s insane that she charges anyone but the super wealthy any money for concerts at this point.

        Every single fucking billionaire is an asshole.

    • winterayars@sh.itjust.works
      37·
      1 month ago

      It’s super illegal.

      He’s probably doing it to drive up interest and get people to register, then at the end he’ll be like “sowwy guys, my lawyer says I can’t :( Vote Trump to end this horrible tyranny!”

      • joekar1990@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 month ago

        Just like when he promised to donate to end world hunger to the world food bank and then backed out.

    • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
      191·
      1 month ago

      Hmm hmm

      Federal law makes it a crime to pay someone to register to vote.

      Musk’s scheme is to offer an incentive for signing his right wing petitions - presumably to collect names to be used for GOTV.

      While he is requiring that someone has to be registered to vote to be eligible, his legal argument would be that he isn’t paying anyone to actually register - just paying already registered voters to sign his petition. Rather than federal election law, the issue may rest on what PA state law says about private raffles and lotteries.

      It could certainly be litigated, but there is probably enough grey area for Musk to get away with it.

      But the idea that he is handing out money to collect names of people who are already very likely to vote for Trump doesn’t really suggest that Musk’s huge investment in his pro-Trump GOTV effort is likely to show much success.

      • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        1 month ago

        It could certainly be litigated, but there is probably enough grey area for Musk to get away with it.

        It certainly won’t get litigated in the next 2.5 weeks before election day. And if Trump wins, we know Trump’s AG will not only not prosecute a thing related to Trump’s friends, they will weaponize the DoJ against anyone who goes against Trump’s friends.

      • TipRing@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        1 month ago

        It’s not that grey. It is expressly illegal to pay someone to register to vote and a lottery prize is specifically called out in the statute as a forbidden form of compensation. It is a felony and punishable by up to 5 years in prison.

        What CAH is doing is a grey area, paying people to create a voting plan isn’t mentioned in the law so it skirts around the legality of it. This should probably also be illegal as a form of voter compensation but may require the law to be amended.

        • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
          21·
          1 month ago

          If you have to be a registered voter to sign the petition, you’re not paying for someone to register.

          • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
            21·
            1 month ago

            Unless that individual was not already registered and did so explicitly because you offered them the opportunity to make a million dollars.

            • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
              21·
              1 month ago

              Then in that case it wouldn’t be technically against federal election law as I understand it. Offering money or the chance of money to register to vote is the key to being illegal.

  • MCasq_qsaCJ_234English
    21·
    1 month ago

    Elon wants Trump to win, but he is making a very risky bet. If Kamala wins, Elon will probably not want to give any money and will get into trouble with the authorities.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      182·
      1 month ago

      Elon doesn’t care who wins. He knows Trump only responds to bribes and displays of personal loyalty. If Trump wins, Elon wins.

      If Trump loses, Elon knows Democrats will still support electric vehicles, solar, and space exploration no matter how badly he acts. So he still wins.

      • Prison Mike@links.hackliberty.org
        2·
        1 month ago

        Wasn’t Tesla backsliding a few months ago because Democrats are kind of abandoning them? Living in California where every other car is a Tesla though, that was either short-lived or never true.

    • spechter@lemmy.ml
      13·
      1 month ago

      Only those registering with his PAC are eligible, so no money goes to those filthy democrats anyways.

  • Zyratoxx@lemm.ee
    6·
    1 month ago

    Without context it looks like Musk is rooting for the Belarussian opposition lmao