Is Musk's campaign to give away $1 million a day to Trump voters legal?

If you are the richest man in the world, you can give money away - out of altruism or to promote your own interests. That is the case with Elon Musk. He wants to give away a million dollars a day until the US election on November 5th. But to whom? And under what conditions?

Musk's "random" award of one million dollars is actually only aimed at registered voters who sign a petition - one that advocates "freedom of speech and the right to bear arms."

"From now until the election, we will randomly give away one million dollars every day to people who have signed the petition," the Tesla boss said at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to Bild. He also handed over the first check on the occasion.

This petition for freedom of speech and the right to bear arms was launched by Musk's organization 'America PAC' (Political Action Committee), which supports the election campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

According to Musk, the million-dollar lottery is intended to bring more attention to the petition. But it could violate campaign finance rules in the USA.

Law professor Rick Hasen of the University of California in Los Angeles sees a serious problem in the fact that only registered voters can participate. According to Stern, he explained that this could be interpreted as the lottery creating an incentive to register - and under US election law it is forbidden to pay citizens money to vote or register to vote.

The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro (pictured), said on the US television channel NBC that there were questions about how Musk was using money in the US election campaign - money that was now going directly into the pockets of residents in Pennsylvania. "This is extremely worrying."

According to Stern, every registered voter in Pennsylvania who signs the petition will receive $100. This US state could be particularly important because it has 19 electoral votes. To win the US presidential election, you need 270 electoral votes.

Musk's goal is likely to be to get a particularly large number of conservatives to register to vote in the most important and hotly contested US states.

Musk has long been considered a Trump supporter and has donated millions to his election campaign. According to documents from the US election authority FEC, the Tesla boss donated around 75 million US dollars to the  Pro-Trump 'America PAC' in just three months.

Most recently, Trump had indicated that if he wins the election, Musk could be put at the head of a committee to review US finances. Musk's job would be to cut government spending, Trump said.

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