Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, appears to be encouraging some sort of voter fraud in a post on X.
Democrats have given us another option. You do not need to register to vote. Musk’s mother wrote in the Oct. 5 post. “On election day, have 10 fake names, go to 10 polling stations and vote 10 times. That’s 100 votes and it’s not illegal. “Maybe we should work the system too.”
In response to criticism, Musk called this post sarcastic and did not delete it.
It appears to echo conspiracy theories about large-scale voter fraud shared by Elon Musk. In fact, research has shown that voter fraud is rare. It is not clear that the Democrats are organizing the May Musk type of operation that was mentioned.
Nate Presley, an election expert at Stanford Law School and a contributor to NBC News, said voters would likely violate election law if they heeded his call to “work the system.”
Title 52 of the United States Code says 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.
Furthermore, a fake name is not enough to get you on the electoral roll. Registering to vote requires proof of identification, such as your driver’s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number. Election officials review this information, and if voters don’t provide it, they’re asked for utility bills or other proof of residency, depending on the state.
Mask’s post was marked with a “community note” pointing out that registering to vote under a fake name and casting more than one vote “is actually illegal.” The Federal Election Commission declined to comment on Musk’s post or whether it is investigating.
Persily said, however, that the code does not appear to bar Musk’s encouraging remarks.
“There is a lot of misinformation about voting on social media,” he said. “The fact that someone makes such an exaggerated statement is not a prosecutable offense in my opinion.”
Three hours after the original post, Mae Musk published another post telling users to ignore the first post. He also responded in the comments to various users who were concerned about the misinformation in his post, saying they “don’t understand the sarcasm,” adding that “this is coming from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed Senate Bill 1174 into law.” which prevents it. Local governments from imposing voter ID requirements in local elections.
Elon Musk has similarly condemned the bill in various posts on X, including one in which he wrote, “They just made voter fraud prevention illegal,” and Newsom, a Democrat, They compared “Joker”.
Many states, including New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota, do not require voters to show identification at the polls, Persilli said, and yet there is no evidence of different fraud rates between states with simpler voter identification laws. does not have And those who are more strict.
Mae Musk’s post came on the day her son spoke at a rally for former US President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – where Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in July.
“If they don’t, this will be the last election,” Elon Musk said at Saturday’s rally as he urged people 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 register in Georgia.
In his speech at the rally, Musk reiterated his opposition to laws that do not require voter identification.
“You 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 to vote. I still can’t believe it’s real. So, if there is no birth certificate, how are you supposed to have a good and proper election? It is meaningless.”
Critics of laws requiring voter ID say the requirements prevent eligible voters who may not have government identification such as a driver’s license due to financial or other limitations. Proponents of the laws say they prevent voter fraud, which studies have shown is extremely rare.
Musk endorsed Trump’s X campaign after the July assassination and has since joined other tech millionaires in pledging to contribute to the pro-Trump super PAC America PAC.
According to the nonprofit Center Against Digital Hate, Musk’s posts on X about the election, many of which have been deemed inaccurate or misleading, have generated about 1.2 billion views. None of the 50 misinformation Mask posts that researchers at the center analyzed this year were marked with forum notes that corrected or added context to his claims.
“It is quite clear that there is a significant minority of the American population who do not believe that elections are held honestly or that the results can be trusted,” Persilli said. And when people with big megaphones are spreading misinformation, it’s very difficult to counter those beliefs. Ultimately, the real question is whether people will act on these types of posts.
Elon and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
#Elon #Musks #mother #Mae #appears #encouraging #voter #fraud #post