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Elon Musk’s political action committee America PAC altered a social media video of a recipient of a $1 million check from the tech billionaire in which she effectively said she was paid to vote in the Wisconsin election.
Under Wisconsin’s “Election bribery” laws, it’s not only illegal in the state to pay someone to vote for a particular candidate, it’s also illegal (a felony) to pay anyone simply to vote (or not vote), regardless of who they vote for.
It’s a crime to offer “anything of value” to “any elector … in order to induce any elector to: (a) Vote or refrain from voting,” the law states.
The pricey check stunt didn’t do Musk any good in any case because the candidate he was backing, conservative candidate Brad Schimel, went down to defeat Tuesday night against liberal Judge Susan Crawford in a battle fora spot on the state Supreme Court, giving progressives a vital majority as they gear up to rule on several issues under attack by the Trump administration.
In the original version of the video of the million-dollar recipient posted to America PAC’s social media on Monday, Ekaterina Deistler said: “I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars.”
In a video posted by Elon Musk’s PAC, a $1M check recipient linked voting to receiving the money:
“My name’s Ekaterina Deistler. …I did exactly what Elon Musk told everyone to do: sign the petition, refer friends and family, vote, and now I have a million dollars.” pic.twitter.com/PrXUlk76mO
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) March 31, 2025
The video was taken down Tuesday, and was replaced with another, which was exactly the same except the word “vote” was eliminated.
When asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel why the video was altered, America PAC spokesperson Andrew Romeo told the newspaper: “I don’t think we’re going to comment on it.”
Musk changed his own tweet about the check giveaways, also apparently to dodge the law. He initially said he was giving two $1 million checks at his Sunday event in Green Bay “in appreciation for you taking the time to vote.” Several election experts told the Journal that could be seen as an inducement to vote.
Musk said in a new post he characterized as a “clarification” that he would instead be giving the checks to two people who would serve as spokespeople for his petition against “activist judges.” The recipient of the other $1 million check at the rally was Nicholas Jacobs, the chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul sought an injunction to block the check giveaways, saying they violated the law, but he was ultimately turned down by the state Supreme Court, which did not give a reason for the decision.
