Elon Musk said his Trump-supporting political action committee – America Pac – will give $1m every day until election day to someone who signs his petition that effectively encourages Republicans in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania to register to vote.
The commitment, which started on Saturday as Musk handed a lottery-style check to the first winner of his contest at a town hall event, could mean Musk is on the hook for $17m if he remains the sole donor to his own Pac.
The America Pac petition is for any registered voter in Pennsylvania to pledge their support for the first and second amendments. The petition effectively encourages Trump voters to register to vote so they can be in the $1m draw. Attendees of Saturday’s town hall event had to sign the petition, which allows America Pac to garner contact details for more potential voters that it can work to get to the polls for Trump.
The petition does not require signers to be a Republican; any Democrat registered to vote in Pennsylvania could sign it too.
Musk’s event in Harrisburg on Saturday was the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November’s election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same.
Musk has so far donated $75m to America Pac, which is doing the bulk of Donald Trump’s ground game operation in the battleground states, according to FEC disclosures filed this week.
But the ground game operation appears to have issues. Earlier on Saturday, the Guardian reported that roughly 25% of the door-knocks done by America Pac in Arizona and Nevada were flagged internally as potentially fraudulent – when canvassers falsely claim to have visited a home.
The Trump campaign earlier this year outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, which is betting that spending millions to turn out Trump supporters, especially those who don’t typically vote, would boost returns.
But leaked America Pac data obtained by the Guardian shows that roughly 24% of the door-knocks in Arizona and 25% of the door-knocks in Nevada this week were flagged under “unusual survey logs” by the Campaign Sidekick canvassing app.
America Pac declined to comment. A person familiar with the Pac’s field operation denied there was actual door fraud to that extent in Arizona and Nevada and said they were doing their own auditing.
But the extent of the flagged doors in America Pac’s operation underscores the risk of outsourcing a ground-game program, where paid canvassers are typically not as invested in their candidate’s victory compared with volunteers or campaign staff.
