113
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
113 points (90.1% liked)
politics
19222 readers
3250 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
How is this legal?
The law doesn't apply to rich people.
It's super illegal.
He's probably doing it to drive up interest and get people to register, then at the end he'll be like "sowwy guys, my lawyer says I can't :( Vote Trump to end this horrible tyranny!"
Just like when he promised to donate to end world hunger to the world food bank and then backed out.
Hmm hmm
Federal law makes it a crime to pay someone to register to vote.
Musk's scheme is to offer an incentive for signing his right wing petitions - presumably to collect names to be used for GOTV.
While he is requiring that someone has to be registered to vote to be eligible, his legal argument would be that he isn't paying anyone to actually register - just paying already registered voters to sign his petition. Rather than federal election law, the issue may rest on what PA state law says about private raffles and lotteries.
It could certainly be litigated, but there is probably enough grey area for Musk to get away with it.
But the idea that he is handing out money to collect names of people who are already very likely to vote for Trump doesn't really suggest that Musk's huge investment in his pro-Trump GOTV effort is likely to show much success.
It certainly won't get litigated in the next 2.5 weeks before election day. And if Trump wins, we know Trump's AG will not only not prosecute a thing related to Trump's friends, they will weaponize the DoJ against anyone who goes against Trump's friends.
It's not that grey. It is expressly illegal to pay someone to register to vote and a lottery prize is specifically called out in the statute as a forbidden form of compensation. It is a felony and punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
What CAH is doing is a grey area, paying people to create a voting plan isn't mentioned in the law so it skirts around the legality of it. This should probably also be illegal as a form of voter compensation but may require the law to be amended.
If you have to be a registered voter to sign the petition, you're not paying for someone to register.
Unless that individual was not already registered and did so explicitly because you offered them the opportunity to make a million dollars.
Then in that case it wouldn't be technically against federal election law as I understand it. Offering money or the chance of money to register to vote is the key to being illegal.
Citizens united