Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, appeared to encourage a type of voter fraud in an article on X.
“The Democrats gave us another choice. You don’t have to register to vote,” Musk’s mother wrote in Oct. 5 posts. “On Election Day, have 10 fake names, go to 10 polling stations and vote 10 times. That’s 100 votes, and it’s illegal. Maybe we should work with the system. “
Musk called the post sarcastic in response to criticism and did not delete it.
It seemed to dovetail with conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud shared by Elon Musk. In fact, surveys have found voter fraud to be low. Democrats have not been found planning the kind of operations that Maye Musk has suggested.
If voters heeded his call to “work the system,” they would be violating election law, said Nate Persily, an election expert at Stanford Law School and an NBC News contributor.
Title 52 of the US Code states that it is illegal to use false information to register to vote. Violation of the law is punishable by a fine of $10,000 or up to five years in prison.
Furthermore, a fake name is not enough to get on the electoral roll. Registering to vote requires proof of identification, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. Election officials check that information, and if voters don’t provide it, they’ll be asked for utility bills or other proof of residency in accordance with the state.
Musk’s post tagged “Community Note” pointed out that registering to vote under a false name and voting more than once is “illegal.” The Federal Election Commission declined to comment on Musk’s position or whether it was investigating.
The code, however, does not appear to prohibit Maye Musk’s lobbying statements, Persily said.
“There is a lot of false information circulating on social networks related to voting,” he said. “The fact that someone makes such exaggerated statements does not seem to be a criminal charge.”
Three hours after the first post, Maye Musk made another telling users not to listen to the first one. He also responded in a message to various users who are concerned about the lies in his letter, saying that “they do not understand the insults” and adding that “this comes from Gavin Newsom,” the governor of California, who signed the Senate Bill 1174, which protects. Local governments from submitting voter ID cards in local elections.
Elon Musk also criticized the bill in various places on X, including one in which he wrote that “they just made it to PREVENT voter fraud against the law” and compared Newsom, a Democrat, to “The Joker.”
Persily said many states, including New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota, do not require voters to carry IDs to vote and that, even then, there is no evidence that there are different rates of fraud among states with lenient voter identification laws. and those who have difficulties.
Maye Musk’s post was made the day her son spoke at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – where Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt in July.
At the meeting on Saturday, as he encouraged people to vote, Elon Musk said “if they don’t, this will be the last election.” His mother’s post on X was also a response to one of his posts urging people to register to vote, reminding them of the deadline to do so in Georgia.
In his speech at the conference, Musk reiterated his disapproval of a law that does not require voter identification.
“You have 14 states right now that don’t require voter ID,” Musk said. “California, where I live, just passed a law banning voter ID from voting. I still can’t believe it’s true. So, you should have a good choice, suitable if there is no ID? It’s useless.
Opponents of laws requiring voter identification say that the requirements prevent the entry of eligible voters who may not have government-issued identification such as a driver’s license due to financial or other constraints. Advocates say they prevent voter fraud, which studies have found to be less problematic.
Musk endorsed the Trump campaign at X after the assassination attempt in July, and then joined other millionaires in pledging to donate to the pro-Trump super PAC America PAC, which he founded.
Musk’s posts on X about the election, many of which were deemed fake or false, generated 1.2 billion views, according to a report by the nonprofit Center for Counting Digital Hate. None of the 50 posts from Musk containing falsehoods reviewed by analysts this year were flagged by community notes to correct or add context to what he said.
“It is clear that there are very few people in America who do not believe that elections will be conducted wisely or that the results can be trusted,” Persily said. “And it’s very difficult to challenge those beliefs when people with big megaphones are spreading lies. Ultimately, the real question is whether people will act on these types of articles. “
Elon and Maye Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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