Just as Trump and Harris were fighting fiercely in Pennsylvania on the last day, Musk's "million dollar lottery" case officially began trial. At least based on the evidence submitted by the lawyers in court, this thing is probably far from a "lottery".
As a background, Musk announced on October 20th that his super political action committee, America PAC, will start giving $1 million a day to one person who signs a petition, starting from that day and continuing until November 5th. According to them, this action aims to increase voter registration in the seven swing states without limiting which candidate voters support.
Including the Arizona voters who won the prize on November 4th, 17 people have now received the check for the "million dollar prize", and the official promises that they will receive the real money by the end of November.
(Source: X)
It's not a random selection
Due to the fact that the winner announced by America PAC "did not support Harris at all", this event has long been questioned as not a "random draw", and this doubt was finally decrypted before the election.
In the Philadelphia District Prosecutors' case against Musk and America PAC, which opened on Monday, lawyers for the Political Action Committee told the judge that the "winners" of their "million dollar bonus" campaign in swing states were not randomly selected, but were chosen as the organization's "public spokespersons" to receive compensation.
Republican lawyer Chris Gober said that who can get the money is chosen based on the personal stories they submit. Gober said, "The winner is not randomly chosen. We know for sure who will be announced as the winner of $1 million today and tomorrow
Philadelphia District Prosecutor Larry Krasner stated on Monday that "this so-called lottery event is a scam" and is entirely a political marketing disguised as a lottery. The prosecutor not only requested the judge to order the closure of the event, but also raised concerns about how Musk's political action committee handled the data submitted by voters. According to local media reports, one million people have signed the petition in seven election states.
In practical terms, regardless of the judge's decision, it is already too late for Musk's activities. Firstly, tomorrow is election day, and secondly, the decision of the Pennsylvania court is unlikely to apply to other swing states.
It is worth mentioning that it is Musk himself who has caused misunderstandings among the outside world. When announcing this event, he mentioned that the winner of $1 million would be "randomly" selected. But the official application webpage does not contain this term.
The lawyer explained that Musk's use of the word "random" in his speech does not equate to selecting based on probability, which prosecutors denounced as "absurd".
Chris Yang, the financial director of America PAC, also testified that he was surprised by Musk's announcement that the awards would be "randomly" presented. He said, 'This is not the word I would choose.'. He said he knew in advance who the specific winners would be, and at least these people knew they would be called at the rally, but he didn't explicitly tell them they would win.
Trump and Harris battle fiercely in Pennsylvania on their last day
Without a doubt, on the day of the election, this lawsuit itself has become insignificant.
While the Pennsylvania court was fiercely debating Musk's "lottery" case, Trump and Harris also bet their last day of the election here. This also indicates that both camps believe that the 19 electoral votes here will determine who the next President of the United States will be.
According to the schedule, Harris will hold three events in Pennsylvania on Monday. She will depart from Biden's hometown of Scranton in the morning and hold two rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia later.
Trump got up early, first holding a morning rally in North Carolina, and then quickly rushed to Pennsylvania to hold rallies in Pittsburgh and Reading. Finally, he will travel to Michigan to end his 2024 campaign in Grand Rapids, where his last rally was also held during his previous two presidential campaigns.
By the way, Trump stated at a campaign rally in North Carolina that unless Mexico implements stricter border control measures, he will impose a 25% tariff on imported goods from the country. He also emphasized that this is the first time he has announced this proposal. Of course, tariffs have always been at the core of Trump's foreign policy, and he has stated that he will impose a 20% tariff on all imported goods.
