# America PAC $1 Million Petition Sweepstakes In the last month of the 2024 campaign, [[Elon Musk]]'s [[America PAC]] paid people in the seven swing states for petition signatures, then gave away $1 million a day to people who had signed. The petition itself was a pledge supporting the First and Second Amendments. It asked for nothing but a name, address, phone number and registered-voter status, so it worked as a way to collect voter data. The cash made it a way to drive registrations. Musk said the million-dollar winners would be picked "randomly." In court on the day before the election, the PAC's lawyers said they were not: the winners had been chosen in advance as paid "spokespeople." Two years later, that contradiction is the basis of a federal fraud suit Musk has been ordered to testify in (see [[McAferty v. Musk]]). The program returned in Wisconsin in March 2025, and a state elections commission found probable cause that Musk broke its bribery law. No criminal charges followed. ## How it worked **Phase 1: $47 per referral (from October 6, 2024).** America PAC offered **$47 to anyone who referred** a registered voter in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin or North Carolina who signed the petition. The $47 went to the *referrer*, not the signer. The deadline was October 21, Pennsylvania's registration deadline. By October 30 the PAC said it had mailed more than **87,000** referral checks, with 100,000 more planned for the following day. **Phase 2: $100 in Pennsylvania (from October 17).** In Pennsylvania only, Musk raised the offer to **$100 for the signer and $100 for the referrer.** "If you're a registered Pennsylvania voter, you & whoever referred you will now get $100 for signing our petition." So the common description of the program as "$47 a signature" is right for six states and for referrers. In Pennsylvania, the state the campaign treated as decisive, signers themselves got $100 in the final days before registration closed. **Phase 3: $1 million a day (October 19 – November 5).** At a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 19, Musk announced that one petition signer in the swing states would get $1 million every day until Election Day, and handed over the first check on stage. He described the recipients as chosen "randomly." In the same remarks he said "the only thing we ask for the million dollars is that you be a spokesperson for the petition." That line later became the PAC's legal defense. Eighteen winners were announced in all. ## The legal response - **October 23, 2024: the Justice Department warns.** The Justice Department sent America PAC a letter warning that the $1 million payments might violate federal law. 52 U.S.C. § 10307(c) makes it a crime to pay or offer to pay anyone to register or vote. The petition's requirement that signers be registered was the problem. - **October 28, 2024: Philadelphia sues.** District Attorney [[Larry Krasner]] sued Musk and America PAC in state court to shut down what he called an illegal lottery. After a detour when Musk's side moved the case to federal court, it returned to the Court of Common Pleas. - **November 4, 2024: "not random."** At the hearing, America PAC attorney Chris Gober told the court: "We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow." America PAC director Chris Young testified that the winners "were not chosen by random chance"; the PAC looked for people it thought would be a good fit to represent the organization, and paid them as spokespeople. Judge Angelo Foglietta let the giveaway continue through Election Day, finding that Krasner had not shown the elements of chance a lottery requires. The PAC's own lawyers defeated the "illegal lottery" charge by conceding the "random" claim was false. - **November 26, 2024:** Krasner withdrew the suit without prejudice. ## Aftermath: the lawsuits over the money - **Signers who say they were misled.** Arizona voters Jacqueline McAferty and Joy Harvick filed proposed class actions in federal court in Austin, Texas, arguing that people gave up their personal data for a chance at a prize that was never random. See [[McAferty v. Musk]]. - **Canvassers and signers who say they weren't paid.** On **April 2, 2025**, an anonymous Philadelphia-area canvasser sued Musk, America PAC and Group America LLC in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He says he is owed at least $20,000 in referral payments and estimates the class claim at more than $5 million. A second class action from three swing-state voters followed in **May 2025**, brought by Shannon Liss-Riordan's firm: "This case is about a broken promise." America PAC said it is "committed to paying for every legitimate petition signature" and has withheld payment where it suspects fraud. ## The Wisconsin sequel (March 2025) Before the April 1, 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election, the program came back. America PAC offered **$100 to voters who signed a petition "in opposition to activist judges"** and named another $1 million winner. Musk posted that he would personally hand out two $1 million checks at a rally. His first post framed the checks as thanks to people "for taking the time to vote." A few hours later he revised it to tie them to the petition. Attorney General [[Josh Kaul]] sued on March 28. The courts refused to block the event, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declining on March 30, and Musk handed over the checks in Green Bay that evening. His candidate lost. In **July 2026** the [[Wisconsin Elections Commission]] voted 5–1 that there was probable cause Musk broke the state's election-bribery law with the original post. On **August 25, 2026** the special prosecutor declined to charge, calling the post "a poorly worded statement that was corrected." A civil suit by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign continues. See [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]]. ## Why it matters **It moved the line on paying voters.** Paying people to register or vote is a federal crime. America PAC paid people for a signature that required being registered, and paid $1 million to "spokespeople" drawn from those signers. Both the federal letter and the state lawsuit failed to stop it before the votes were cast. The only after-the-fact enforcement came from a state commission, and a prosecutor declined to pursue it. The template survived intact and was reused within five months. **The data was the durable product.** Every signature delivered a verified swing-state voter's name, address and phone number to a private PAC. The same collection logic reappears in 2026 at votesafe.org (see [[America PAC]]). The prizes ended, but the voter file America PAC assembled stayed with it. **The contradiction is the legal exposure.** Musk's public word "randomly" and his lawyers' "we know exactly who" cannot both be true. Every court test so far has turned on that gap: it beat the illegal-lottery claim in Philadelphia and sustains the fraud claim in Texas. ## See Also - [[America PAC Timeline]] — the full chronology, 2024–2026 - [[America PAC]] · [[America PAC Canvassing Scandal]] · [[McAferty v. Musk]] - [[Elon Musk - 2024-10-19 - one million dollar giveaway]] — the announcement as a social-post artifact - [[2024 Presidential Election]] · [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]] - [[Larry Krasner]] · [[Josh Kaul]] · [[Wisconsin Elections Commission]] - [[Super PACs]] · [[Dark Money]]