Most Americans believe that Elon Musk‘s latest campaigning move of offering money to people signing a petition should be illegal.
When asked by YouGov “Do you think it should be legal or illegal to pay people to sign a political petition?” 62 percent of respondents responded: illegal.
Only 17 percent of respondents said “legal,” and a further 21 percent said “not sure.”
The poll surveyed 3,520 U.S. adults on October 21. It came after Musk announced that he would be giving away prizes of $1 million to swing state voters who signed a petition from his America PAC in support of the First and Second Amendments.
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In a post on X on October 18, Musk wrote, “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 initiative led many to question its legality given it is only available to registered voters.
UCLA law professor Richard Hassen’s argued in a blog post that it is “clearly illegal.”
Hasen said in his blog that federal law states: “Whoever knowingly or willfully … pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
However, not all legal experts agree.
Campaign-finance lawyer Brendan Fischer told the New York Times that this petition narrowly escapes the law since it does not pay people registering to vote, it pays people who have signed a petition and people referring others to the petition.
MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks, who used to work as the general counsel of the U.S. Army, said on X: “It’s distasteful, but I’m not sure it’s criminal. Is paying someone to sign a meaningless petition the same as paying them to register or to vote even if they might have been motivated to register in order to get paid to sign the petition?”
She added that Pennsylvania voter registration ended on October 21. Since the Pennsylvania petition was started on October 18, and the $1 million swing state lottery was started on October 20, it is unclear what kind of effect it will have on last-minute voter registration.
The America PAC has been contacted for comment via email outside of working hours.
Per the YouGov poll, a majority of voters of all political dispositions were opposed to initiatives like Musk’s — 66 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Republicans, and 59 percent of independents agreed it should be illegal to pay people to sign petitions. Similarly, when split by gender, age, race, and religion, the majority in all cases expressed that they believed the practice should not be legal.
As well as actively supporting Trump, Musk has also donated around $75 million to the Trump Campaign via his America PAC throughout this election.
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