Elon Musk Super PAC under fire for alleged register to vote data harvesting scheme: report

An Elon Musk Super PAC is allegedly targeting voters in “more than a half-dozen swing states that could determine the outcome of the 2024 election,” harvesting personal data under the guise of helping prospective voters register to vote, according to a CNBC report. After they hand over their personal information, the website says “thank you,” possibly leading them to believe they have registered to vote, when they have not.

“If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they’ll be prompted to enter their email addresses and zip code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign up section. But for users who enter a zip code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports.

“Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cell phone number, and age,” CNBC explains. “If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a ‘thank you’ page.”

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CNBC also reports this 15-second video ad (below) is from Musk’s America PAC, and uses video of the Trump assassination attempt to encourage prospective voters to the PAC’s website.

On Musk’s social media site X, Schwartz writes, “Billionaire Elon Musk has created a PAC collecting voter data from those living in key states through an online ‘register to vote’ form that does not directly register people to vote. All of this in an effort to help Donald Trump become president.”

Spyware, phishing, and disinformation researcher John Scott-Railton posted what appear to be screenshots of his experience at Musk’s Super PAC site, which he calls “Elon Musk’s America PAC bait-and-switch voter registration page.”

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“I entered information saying I was from Michigan and it solicited a lot of detailed personal information,” he writes. “Then it was over. It did not send me to an official voter registration page.”

CNBC’s report also points to Musk’s ownership and management of the highly-influential social media site he renamed X, formerly Twitter.

“Experts say Musk’s ownership of X and the lack of any real guardrails around how he uses it, is a sign the platform could be used by the Tesla boss as a political weapon to take on Harris and Democrats at large with fewer than 100 days left until Election Day.”

Daniel Weiner, a director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program told CNBC, “There is a concern that Musk is weaponizing that platform to help his preferred candidate,” meaning Trump.

“Oh cool,” commented The Washington Spectator’s Dave Troy, a veteran investigative reporter. “So this is Musk’s big ‘election integrity’ push — fake voting registration forms. What’s next Elon, text messages to urban areas that tell voters the wrong Election Day, or that their vote isn’t needed?”

Don Moynihan, McCourt Chair of Public Policy at Georgetown University‘s McCourt School of Public Policy, remarked: “Getting people’s personal information on the promise of helping them to register to vote, and then not helping them to register to vote definitely seems like election fraud. This is what Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC is reportedly doing.”

View the video and social media post above or at this link.