Billionaire Elon Musk has upped his financial offer for registered swing state voters to sign a conservative-leaning petition. On Thursday, Musk wrote on X that his pro-Trump super PAC would give $100 to signees and those who refer them.
After Musk pushed a debunked voter fraud conspiracy theory Thursday evening at a pro-Trump town hall event in Pennsylvania, he announced in an X post that he was doubling his financial offer for engagement with the petition, which had been set at $47. He said the deadline to sign the petition is Monday night, the day that Pennsylvania voter registration closes.
“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,” Musk wrote.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Musk initially launched the petition and referral offer in early October. His America PAC released the petition, which is in support of the Constitution’s First and Second amendments. For anyone who refers a registered swing state voter to sign it, Musk promised to mail a check. For the current offer, he said checks will be mailed to voter addresses on file in Pennsylvania.
The program appears to avoid breaking campaign finance laws, which make it illegal to pay people to register to vote, because the payment is for signing the petition and referring registered voters to sign the petition, rather than for registration.
However, Musk, the world’s richest person, has vocally urged swing state voters in Pennsylvania to vote for former President Donald Trump, saying Thursday that the 2024 election will decide the “fate of America” and “the fate of Western civilization.”
Decision 2024
Previously vowing to stay apolitical, Musk has sharply veered to support conservatives since taking over X, formerly Twitter. Over the summer, he endorsed Trump and has ramped up various means of support for the candidate. Recent disclosures show that Musk has donated $75 million to his own pro-Trump super PAC.
Musk also joined Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and plans to continue hosting town halls in the state, which he said is the “linchpin” for the election, through Monday.
On X, where he is the most-followed person with over 200 million followers, Musk has repeatedly pushed false and inflammatory claims on topics including immigration, free speech and voter fraud.
Musk’s America PAC has also paid to run ads on Facebook and Instagram for voter registration in swing states. In August, the PAC collected voter data but only directed certain zip codes to an official way to register to vote, a move that courted significant controversy. Election officials in Michigan and North Carolina investigated whether the website was misleading voters, but Michigan said it hadn’t found any evidence of violating state campaign finance law.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:
