Elon Musk recently launched a political action committee to run ads on Google in an effort to return convicted Donald J. Trump to the White House, and CNBC has a new report on the online tactics Musk’s USA PAC is using in battleground states that will determine who wins the November election. It’s highly questionable, to say the least.
One ad run by America PAC, available to watch on YouTube, shows a man lying in bed watching the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. The man appears to be texting with a friend, confusingly messaging him over the video of Trump being shot: “This is out of control!! Where do I even begin?”
The friend on the other end of the phone texts back, “Register to vote! It’s easy!” along with a link to the America PAC website.
What happens when a real person goes to America PAC’s website and tries to vote? As CNBC pointed out on Friday, it all depends on where that person lives.
When you click on “Register to Vote” on America PAC’s website, you’re presented with two forms to enter: your email address and your zip code. Depending on what you enter in the zip code, you’ll either be taken to a link that redirects you to your state’s voter registration page, or to a new form that collects a lot of personal information.
Gizmodo tried it out, too. First, we entered a Southern California zip code, which took us to a new page with a link to California. But when we entered a zip code for Wisconsin, one of about six states Trump needs to win to beat Democratic front-runner Kamala Harris, we were directed to a new form asking for our address, date of birth, and phone number, as seen in the screenshot below.
Curiously, after filling all that out and clicking “Continue,” users are greeted with the following message: “Thank you for taking the first step to register to vote in Wisconsin. Please fill out the form below and we will help you complete your registration.”
But there’s no form below to “complete” your registration – that’s all I saw when I tried the website on Friday.
Nothing. Nothing. There is no way to actually register to vote in Wisconsin, at least not from this website. All we did was give the information to Musk’s group. And here’s where things get even weirder, according to CNBC: No one knows what Musk and his cronies will do with this information, but safe funds seem to be betting on the idea that Musk will help coordinate a local messaging campaign to Trump supporters.
Election law specifically prohibits super PACs from coordinating with those they support, so is it legal for Musk’s group to work with the Trump campaign? US regulators at the Federal Election Commission recently ruled that door-to-door canvassing is exempt from the coordination ban, meaning the Trump campaign can chat with these dark money groups and coordinate their messaging to get Trump supporters to the polls.
“Coordination is crucial because it ensures that the PAC’s activities are in the best interest of the campaign and frees up campaign funds for other uses,” Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance expert at the watchdog group Documented, told CNBC. “I suspect the PAC’s ability to coordinate its data-driven campaign activities with the Trump campaign was very attractive to donors.”
Trump and Harris are neck and neck in the polls, a big improvement for Democrats considering Biden has been losing to Trump for months. But it’s still a 50-50 race, and every voter in the battleground states matters. That’s why Musk and his group are apparently targeting voters in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, trying to get their message out to Trump and those interested in him.
It’s kind of funny, but when I tried to contact America PAC through the form on their website, I got a message that said “An error occurred and my message could not be submitted.” But if you’re a member of America PAC and would like to talk to us, we’d love to hear from you, especially about why you’re trying to re-elect this racist scum to the White House.
