Elon Musk’s PAC Is Harvesting Voter Data

The America PAC is using fraudulent techniques to obtain highly personal information from voters in swing states.

(Photo of Musk from Chesnot/Getty Images)

On Friday, CNBC published an explosive report on how Elon Musk’s America PAC is defrauding voters through online ads. As the report explained, Musk’s Trump-aligned PAC is running a scheme that pretends to register people to vote. But in many cases, the PAC simply collects higher personal information from users that it can later use to retarget them.

What’s even more telling is that America PAC only collects this personal information from users residing in swing states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina. For anyone else, it actually does assist them with registering to vote.

Not shady at all, right?

It’s possible that America PAC simply “messed up” badly by forgetting to actually redirect users in swing states to voter registration sites after scraping their personal information. In so doing, however, it has made it abundantly clear that it treats swing state users very differently than non-swing state ones. In exposing its own operations this way, it has raised a more troubling question: Is Musk involved in improper data harvesting and planning to improperly influence the election, just like we saw in 2016?

Authorities and watchdog groups aren’t waiting to find out. Within hours after the scheme was uncovered, America PAC was sued by a citizens’ rights group in North Carolina, and on Sunday the Michigan Secretary of State announced her office was investigating the scheme.

In today’s piece, I’ll briefly lay out the history and context behind Musk’s direct foray into politics on behalf of Trump. I’ll then look more closely at the apparent fraud that America PAC has perpetrated on swing state voters. Lastly, I’ll discuss the responses from citizens’ groups and officials and what that likely will mean for Musk and his PAC, along with other bad actors, moving forward.

Musk weighs in with millions for Trump

Democracy advocates were alarmed when Musk, whose net worth is north of $200 billion, along with several wealthy Republican donors, met privately earlier this year with Trump in Palm Beach to discuss whether they would use their vast resources to help him win re-election. 

Those fears were realized in July, when Musk and his closest friends in tech founded a new political action committee known as the America PAC, through which Musk could inject huge sums into the race and indirectly support Trump’s campaign. On the day of Trump’s attempted shooting, Musk announced his full-throated support of the ex-president. Per reporting by the Wall Street Journal, Musk then claimed he would be donating $45 million a month toward the pro-Trump super PAC. He has since disputed that report saying he “doesn’t subscribe to the cult of personality” and would not be supporting Trump with that sum. It remains unclear, however, if Musk would still be pumping those same funds into his America PAC, which alongside the Trump campaign shares their mutual goal of re-electing Trump.

There are many reasons Musk now favors Trump, including his alignment with and support of Trump’s racist and false claims that immigrants are being deliberately allowed across the border so that they can become Democratic voters. Musk has also been “red pilled” in the culture wars, and he now espouses staunchly anti-trans views while amplifying false claims about Olympic athletes and even attacking his own trans daughter. 

Musk would likely have a front seat, and perhaps even an advisory post, in a second Trump administration. Most importantly for Musk, in view of his bottom line with Tesla, following Musk’s endorsement Trump has backed away from his criticism of electric vehicles. Trump now says openly in stump speeches that it was Musk’s endorsement (and presumably money) that changed his mind on the question.

America PAC and its fraudulent “voter registration” ad

So what has America PAC been up to under Musk?

Last Friday, Brian Schwartz of CNBC published a troubling report about how America PAC was running online ads that misled viewers into thinking they were registering to vote, when in fact for many users the point was not to register them at all, but rather to obtain highly personal information that could be used later in the election.

If that sounds familiar, it’s similar to a playbook we saw with Cambridge Analytica, which improperly used “personality surveys” to scrape information from tens of millions of users on Facebook, then turned that around to target “persuadable” voters with anti-Hillary Clinton ads. That scandal cost Facebook $750 million in a class-action payout, and the scheme likely pushed Clinton several points down in approval, quite possibly costing her the entire election.

Here’s how the America PAC scam works. Using dramatic video from the attempted shooting of Donald Trump, the ad urges viewers to be sure to vote because, “This is out of control.” It then sends them to America PAC’s website. 

What happens next depends on where users live. In non-swing states, users are prompted to enter an email and zip code then directed to a voter registration site. But in swing states, they’re asked for their address, phone number and age.

Then comes the switcheroo. America PAC leads swing state users to a page that says “THANK YOU” and asks them to “complete the form below so we will help you complete your registration.” But there’s nothing else on the page. Here’s what the final page looks like, according to one citizen journalist from Wisconsin who input the information.

America PAC never registers those swing state users to vote, nor does it offer any information on how to register. 

It does, however, collect that critical personal info—including address, phone number and age—which it intends to use to target the voters later with ads, canvassing and reminders to vote for Trump. 

If this sounds like fraud to you, you aren’t alone. As former White House chief ethics lawyer and law professor Richard W. Painter observed, “Misrepresentation to obtain personal data on line, just like misrepresentation to raise money on line, is fraud.”

“This is one of the most frighteningly  deceptive, disgusting & dishonest things I’ve ever seen,” stated Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. “He is literally gathering your personal data & not even ‘registering’ anyone.” Giannoulias urged voters, “Please don’t trust this,” he said, providing a legitimate voter registration link for residents of Illinois.

Citizen watchdogs and authorities respond, and quickly

With lessons still resonating from the first Trump election around the danger of voter info harvesting, a group called American Muckrakers filed an election complaint in North Carolina against America PAC. It landed on Friday—the same day as the CNBC report. They work fast.

And working on a Sunday, the Michigan Secretary of State launched an investigation into America PAC’s activities. From CNBC’s follow-up reporting:

“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokeswoman for the Michigan secretary of state’s office said in a statement to CNBC.

“While the America PAC is a federal political action committee, the Department is reviewing their activities to determine if there have been any violations of state law. We will refer potential violations to the Michigan Attorney General’s office as appropriate,” the spokeswoman added.

It isn’t clear whether specific election laws have been broken, but if the investigation reveals misrepresentations and concludes there was no intent to register anyone to actually vote, that could result in a civil or criminal prosecution. Given Musk’s high profile and his involvement in America PAC, it’s also possible other states and other citizen groups are planning actions.

Beyond holding America PAC and Musk accountable for what is likely voter fraud, the attention upon the group’s activities could act as an important deterrent, not only upon the PAC for any future bad faith or unlawful attempts to harvest voter data, but upon other groups that might be thinking of doing the same. Authorities, consumer rights groups and voting rights activists are now on high alert for such scams. And it’s clear that state officials in the swing states—nearly all of which elected Democratic secretaries of states, attorneys general and governors—are not willing to just roll over as the November election approaches.

In subsequent pieces, I’ll be writing more on the subject of our elections and the bad faith actors seeking to undermine them—including the many GOP election deniers who are in a position to attempt to deny election results in swing state counties—and what can be and is being done to stop them.

Stay tuned.