Will Elon Musk actually face legal consequences for illegally paying voters in an attempt to interfere in an election? We’re at least one step closer to finding out.
Back during the 2024 Presidential election, he got away with offering $1 million to a “random” (not actually random) voter who would sign his petition in an effort to get out the vote for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
He then tried to run back that strategy a few months later during a special election for judges in Wisconsin. It didn’t work out so well for him. It flopped so badly that Musk said he would no longer get so invested in elections any more. Who knows if he’ll keep that promise. Probably not.
And now the Wisconsin Elections Commission has decided that the whole “we’ll pay you to sign this petition” nonsense likely violates the law.
The motion approved by the elections commission said it found probable cause that Musk broke Wisconsin law by making a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted in the Supreme Court election “in order to induce them to vote in that election.”
[….]
Three Wisconsin voters received checks from Musk, including two who got them in person at the Green Bay rally. Two weeks before the election, Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, offered $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to “activist judges,” or referred someone to sign it.
And, before you rush out to claim that it was clearly a partisan/biased decision, turns out it really wasn’t. The commission is equally split between Republicans and Democrats:
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 in closed session on Thursday to refer the complaints to the district attorney, the commission’s spokesperson, Emilee Miklas, said.
Brown County District Attorney David Lasee, a Republican, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
Of course, it is an open question as to whether or not Lasee will actually do anything about this. Some groups are pushing him to act on the referral. And they called out that Lasee had put a stop to other “get out the vote” campaigns, warning them that their actions (offering food, water, and rides to the polls) could violate election bribery laws. Here’s Kristin Lyerly from the Committee to Protect Healthcare:
“The commission did their job. Now it’s time for District Attorney Lasee to do his,” she added. “This isn’t about political outcomes. It’s about whether the law applies to everyone or just everyone except the richest man in the world.”
Others argued the law should be applied fairly, pointing to an April 2024 incident where Lasee warned local get out the vote organizers that an event they planned risked violating state election bribery law.
The event offered food, water and rides to the polls — as well as cash prizes for social media influencers who got the most people out to vote. The groups canceled the effort after receiving a letter from Lasee questioning its legality.
“When the district attorney’s office believed local organizations may have crossed a legal line, it acted quickly,” said community organizer Christina Thor. “Our community deserves to see that same standard applied today. The same urgency, the same scrutiny, and the same commitment to applying that law fairly.”
So, here we have a very clear opportunity to see whether the law is applied equally to Musk, or whether yet another law enforcement official decides that there can be no consequences for rampant law-breaking.
Should this move forward, I guarantee you that Musk and his hordes of cult-like fans will insist that this prosecution is political. But, again, that seems like bullshit. At some point, those who break the law with impunity have to be held accountable for their actions.
One of the most frustrating things about the last decade has been watching the rich and powerful face zero consequences for doing many, many terrible things — a pattern that breeds exactly the kind of toxic cynicism that lets everyone else assume that the rules don’t apply to themselves either. This is a chance to take a stand and prove that wrong. Those actions should have consequences, and screaming “political prosecution” when it’s clearly not should never be a literal get out of jail free card.