'A mockery of democracy': Senate Dems ask DOJ to probe $1 million Musk voter payments

WASHINGTON ? Two Democratic senators on Friday asked the Justice Department to investigate and potentially prosecute tech billionaire Elon Musk over whether his $1 million sweepstakes payments to registered pro-Trump voters in seven swing states are illegal.

In their letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Musk’s “reward scheme appears to violate federal campaign finance law,” in part because it is “explicitly designed to induce people to register to vote.”

They also said the Justice Department’s own Election Crimes Manual states that the federal law can be violated when cash or "lottery chances" are "intended to induce or reward the voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.” Blumenthal is a former attorney general of Connecticut.

The senators sent the letter one day after Musk’s America PAC issued at least one more of the $1 million payouts in defiance of a warning letter from the DOJ about how the lottery might violate federal election laws that bar paying people to register to vote.

“There is no place for vote buying in our democracy. As the Department has recognized, voting should never ‘degenerate into a spending contest, with the victor being the candidate who can pay the most voters,' ” the lawmakers wrote. “Permitting this scheme to proceed without consequences makes a mockery of democracy and the law.”

More: Big money has always been a part of elections. So is Elon Musk's 'lottery' illegal?

The two urged the Justice Department to investigate whether Musk’s cash prizes are prohibited payments for voter registration and to “take appropriate enforcement action, including prosecution, if his actions prove to be illegal.”

Musk’s super PAC declined to comment immediately in response to the letter, CNN reported. Musk himself, and the Justice Department, also did not immediately comment in response to USA TODAY requests.

The senators’ letter to Garland follows a similar letter sent earlier in the week by 11 former Republican officials, who also asked Justice to investigate the payments. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also has criticized the $1 million lottery and said authorities should investigate it.

Musk hasn’t addressed the criticism specifically. But he suggested in a recent post on X, his social media company formerly known as Twitter, that the payments weren’t illegal because those eligible to win by registering to vote "do not need to register as Republicans or vote in the Nov. 5 election."

But the America PAC’s online petition offering the money says those eligible must pledge to support the Second Amendment, political shorthand for opposition to gun control measures and a subject that's popular with Republican-leaning voters.

“Our goal is to get 1 million registered voters in swing states to sign in support of the Constitution, especially freedom of speech and the right to bear arms,” one Musk post on X said.

It also provided links to online voter registration forms in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate Dems ask DOJ to probe Musk $1 million voter registration payments