Elon Musk settles lawsuits over $1 million voter giveaway

Elon Musk has agreed to settle two lawsuits over a 2024 voter giveaway that promised $1 million a day to a randomly selected registered voter in a swing state. The settlement details have not been made public.

Two Arizona residents filed the lawsuits in Austin, Texas. They alleged that Musk falsely claimed the prizes would be awarded randomly and said they would not have signed the petition required to enter if they had known the recipients were not chosen by chance.

The giveaway also drew a lawsuit from Philadelphia’s district attorney, who sought to stop it on the grounds that Musk was running an illegal lottery. At a hearing, Chris Gober, a representative for Musk’s America PAC, told a judge that the $1 million recipients were not chosen by chance and that the organization knew who would be announced as recipients that day and the next.

The plaintiffs also accused Musk and America PAC of using the petition to collect user data. They said it placed no limits on the group’s use or sale of the personal data it collected and provided no further information about planned data use.