Elon Musk’s mother, May Musk, appears to have encouraged a form of voter fraud in a post on X.
“Democrats have given us another option. We don’t have to register to vote,” Musk’s mother wrote in an Oct. 5 post. “On election day, have 10 false names, go to 10 polling stations, vote 10 times. That’s 100 votes, and it’s not illegal. Maybe we need to improve our system too. .”
Musk responded to the criticism by calling the post sarcastic and did not delete it.
This appeared to echo conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud that Elon Musk has been sharing. In fact, research has found that voter fraud is rare. Democrats have not been found to be orchestrating the type of operation May Musk mentioned.
Nate Persily, an election expert at Stanford Law School and a contributor to NBC News, said voters would most likely violate election laws if they heeded his call to “improve the system as well.” said.
Title 52 of the United States Code states that it is illegal to use false information to register to vote. Violations are punishable by a $10,000 fine or up to five years in prison.
Moreover, a false name alone is not enough to be listed on the voter list. To register to vote, you will need identification, such as a driver’s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. Election officials will check that information, and if voters don’t provide it, some states will require them to submit utility bills or other proof of residency.
Musk’s post was marked with a “community note” pointing out that registering to vote under a false name and casting multiple votes is “virtually illegal.” The Federal Election Commission declined to comment on Musk’s post or whether it is investigating it.
However, Persily said the provision does not appear to prohibit May Musk’s pep talk.
“There’s a lot of false information circulating on social media about voting,” he said. “The fact that someone would make such an exaggerated statement doesn’t seem to me to be a crime that should be prosecuted.”
Three hours after the first post, May Musk created another post asking users to ignore the first post. She also responded in the comments to various users concerned about misinformation in her post, saying, “I don’t understand the sarcasm,” adding, “This is coming from California Governor Gavin Newsom.” . Prohibits local governments from imposing voter ID requirements in local elections.
Elon Musk similarly denounced the bill in various posts about ” is also included.
Parsily said many states, including New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota, do not require voters to bring identification to the polls, and even if they do, states with more lenient voter identification laws. He said there was no evidence that rates of fraud differed between countries. And some are more severe.
Maye Musk’s post came the day her son spoke at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in July.
“If you don’t vote, this will be your last election,” Elon Musk said at Saturday’s rally, urging the crowd to vote. His mother’s post on X was also a response to one of his posts urging people to register to vote and reminding them of the deadline to vote in Georgia.
In his speech at the rally, Musk reiterated his opposition to legislation that would not require voter identification.
“We now have 14 states that don’t require voter ID,” Musk said. “California, where I used to live, just passed a law banning voter ID for voting. I still can’t believe that’s true. So what if you don’t have ID? How can we hold a proper election like that? It’s pointless.”
Critics of the voter ID law say the requirement prevents voters who don’t have a driver’s license or other government-issued identification from voting due to financial or other constraints. Supporters of the law say it prevents voter fraud, but studies have found such behavior to be extremely rare.
Mr. Musk supported Mr. Trump’s campaign at ” has clearly stated that it will donate to.
Musk’s posts on X about the election, many deemed false or misleading, have been viewed about 1.2 billion times, according to a report by the nonprofit Center to Combat Digital Hate. None of the 50 Musk posts containing misinformation that the center’s researchers analyzed this year had community notes that corrected or added context to Musk’s claims.
“It’s clear that a significant minority of Americans do not believe that the election will be conducted with integrity or that the results can be trusted,” Persily said. “And when people with big megaphones are spreading falsehoods, it’s very difficult to counteract that belief. At the end of the day, the real question is whether people will act on these kinds of posts. is.”
Elon Musk and May Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
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