Is Musk’s daily $1 million cash donation to US voters legal?

“I believe (Elon) Musk’s offer is probably illegal,” said Paul Schiff Berman, the Walter S. Cox Professor of Law at George Washington University.

He pointed to the U.S. Election Law Code, which states that anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment for either registering to vote or voting” faces a potential fine of $10,000 or a prison sentence of five years.

“Your offer is only open to registered voters, so I think your offer goes against that provision,” Berman told the BBC.

The justice department declined to comment. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) was approached for comment.

The strategy may be covered by a loophole because no one is being paid directly to register or vote, a former FEC chairman suggested.

Brad Smith told the New York Times that the offer was “kind of a gray area” but “not that close to the edge.”

“He’s not paying them to register to vote. He’s paying them to sign a petition – and he wants only people registered to vote to sign the petition. So I think he does well here,” he said.

But an election law professor at Northwestern University told the Associated Press that context was important.

“It’s not exactly the same as paying someone to vote, but we’re getting close enough (to voting day) to worry about its legality,” said Michael Kang.

Adav Noti of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center said Musk’s scheme “violates federal law and is subject to civil or criminal enforcement by the Department of Justice.”

“It is illegal to distribute money on the condition that recipients register as voters,” Noti told the BBC.