Straight Arrow News published a Q&A with Fordham Law Adjunct Professor Jerry H. Goldfeder, director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project, about the legality of Elon Musk’s $1 million offer to new registered, republican voters in swing states.
Ray Bogan: In general, do you think that’s legal?
Jerry Goldfeder: No, there are federal statutes that deal with lotteries. They are not permitted.
But more specifically, there are federal statutes and Department of Justice handbooks that say that you can’t pay somebody to vote and you can’t pay somebody to register.
So here we have a situation where the only person who can sign the petition and win is somebody who has registered to vote in a particular state. So either they are being paid and encouraged to register or perhaps they’re being rewarded for having registered previously. So there’s a real linkage between paying someone money and the registration requirement that he’s put into place. That’s not permitted.