Gardner on Musk’s Murky $1M Sweepstakes

James Gardner, SUNY Distinguished Professor; Bridget and Thomas Black Professor, was recently quoted in an article by ABC News. The article was about America PAC, owned by Elon Musk, which was targeting registered voters in swing-state by running a $1 million sweepstakes.

Many legal experts commented this giveaway likely violated federal laws, which prohibit individuals from paying money in exchange for voter registration. Musk’s sweepstakes intention was clearly to offer monetary incentives to people to get them to register to vote, says Gardner.

Gardner was also consulted for an article published by Reuters about court orders in Arizona and other battleground states giving priority to any cases involving election results.