Wisconsin group sues Elon Musk, alleging million-dollar check giveaways were voter bribes

A Wisconsin watchdog group has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk claiming that he unlawfully bribed voters with million-dollar checks and $100 giveaways in the state’s latest Supreme Court election.

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that investigates election transparency — along with two Wisconsin voters, filed the suit against Musk, his super PAC America PAC and another Musk-owned entity called the United States of America Inc. In the suit, the plaintiffs claimed that Musk and his entities violated state laws that prohibit vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries. It also accuses Musk of conducting civil conspiracy and acting as a public nuisance. Musk and America PAC did not respond to a request for comment.

“In the context of an election for Wisconsin’s highest court, election bribery—providing more than $1 to induce electors (that is, voters) to vote— undermines voters’ faith in the validity of the electoral system and the independence of the judiciary,” the suit reads.

The complaint alleges that Musk violated state laws in giving away $100 to voters who signed a petition “in opposition to activist judges” and handing out million-dollar checks to those who signed the petition. The suit says that those who had won the checks had voted for candidate Brad Schimel. At a town hall in Green Bay, Musk gave away million-dollar checks to two people, both of whom the suit claims voted for Schimel. In a video America PAC posted on X, one of the winners said he had voted for Schimel and encouraged others to do the same.

“Everyone needs to do what I just did, sign the petition, refer your friends, and go out to vote for Brad Schimel,” the winner, Nicholas Jacobs, said in the video.

The suit mentions that Musk had said the $1 million awards would be given “in appreciation” for those “taking the time to vote.”

Despite Musk’s America PAC spending over $12 million on Schimel’s campaign, candidate Susan Crawford won the race.

Before the race had been called, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a similar lawsuit against Musk over his involvement in the state Supreme Court election, but a county judge declined to immediately hold a hearing. A Pennsylvania judge similarly declined a request to block Musk’s million-dollar giveaways in the state. During the presidential election, Musk’s America PAC had also given out million-dollar checks to people registered to vote in swing states, which the Justice Department had warned could be illegal.

Musk defended his giveaways during the presidential election despite the allegations of unlawfulness by saying that those who signed the petition weren’t given the money as a prize and that chance “was not involved here.” Those who signed the petition were instead America PAC spokespeople with the “opportunity to earn” $1 million.

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“Make no mistake: an eligible voter’s opportunity to earn is not the same thing as a chance to win,” Musk said, according to Reuters.

Jeff Mandell, the co-founder of Law Forward — the law firm that filed the suit on behalf of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — said in an interview with NBC News that this lawsuit has the advantage of additional time.

“The election is over. Some passions have cooled, and we are bringing this in a normal posture, asking the court to go through its normal procedure,” Mandell said. “We are confident that we’ll get a complete and fair adjudication.”

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s lawsuit also seeks to bar Musk from “replicating any such unlawful conduct in relation to future Wisconsin elections.”

“Almost everyone who was watching closely or saw what was happening here in Wisconsin in that very tight period was pretty horrified, and would say things like, ‘Well, this can’t possibly be legal,’ or, ‘He can’t possibly get away with this,’” Mandell said.

“That’s really the purpose of this lawsuit, is to make sure that a court does say — in accord with both the law and I think people across the political spectrum's intuition — that this is not legal conduct, this is not consistent with how our democracy works, and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”