Summary

Two Pennsylvania voters, Austin Gwiazdowski and Jeanne Fermier, received $100 checks from Elon Musk’s pro-Trump “America PAC” despite not signing the PAC’s petition, which was required to qualify for payments.

The petition aimed to gather support for the First and Second Amendments and facilitate pro-Trump outreach.

Both voters expressed confusion and refused to cash the checks.

The PAC, funded by Musk, mailed 187,000 checks as part of efforts to boost Trump’s Pennsylvania support, while Musk’s political influence continues to rise.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    11 hours ago

    18 U.S. Code § 597 - Expenditures to influence voting

    Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 721; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, § 601(a)(12), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3498.)

      • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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        8 hours ago

        Lol what? Can you seriously not copy and paste 18 U.S. Code § 597 into any search engine for the internet?

        • jagged_circle
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          5 hours ago

          How do I find the official source tho? The internet is full of misinformation and google loves to send me to content marketing third party untrustworthy trash.

          Yes, you should always post a link to the authorative source

          • Lennny@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            We’re not going to handicap ourselves because you have an aversion for googling. Learn to research. It’s legal code…gee I wonder if a .gov link might be legit.

            • jagged_circle
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              2 hours ago

              You’re on a link sharing website saying you dont want to share links. Is this your first time on the Internet?

              Welcome, we share links here.

          • spongebue@lemmy.world
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            28 minutes ago

            While Google has been circling down the toilet lately, if you at least try searching for what you want, and use half a brain to think about what you’re looking at, it’s not exactly super difficult. I have to Google similar stuff for work sometimes, and .gov is pretty much a sure thing that you’re getting a government source, which is pretty good when you’re looking for a government’s laws. I also get different major colleges, which is just as good. Especially since you’re reading legalese, not commentary on the law or whatever.

            • jagged_circle
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              19 minutes ago

              Or we can all do our duty to each other and share authorative sources to fight misinformation

          • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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            4 hours ago

            The official source is the US government…which is why they cited 18 U.S. Code § 597

            Honestly, it should be self explanatory that is laws/codes would be from official American government websites.

            Normally i would agree that links should be provided but if someone’s cites a specific law/code, the government site (state or federal, depending on what’s being cited) should be the immediate source of information.

  • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    What sucks: for the last 4 fucking years, we’ve had a constant stream of bullshit about “cheating and fraud” from Fuckface 45 and his cronies. It’s now normalized to call into question election integrity, so even if they actually fucked with the election, it’s highly unlikely anyone could figure out anything.

    Thanks, exhaustion.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      that’s all they do. why do you think they called everyone a pedophile. now they have one as a president, who is hiring Epstein’s pal as head of FDA and another predator as AG.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      pollute the waters so much you can’t find anything. pretty much how it goes.

      notice how all the whining about cheating and fraud all just stopped once the cheater ‘won’.

      • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        I guess. But he “won” in 2016 and didn’t bitch about election fraud or cheating. Strange, that.

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    21 hours ago

    187,000 counts of trying to buy votes.

    penalty: a lecture about the lowball offers.

  • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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    20 hours ago

    Nothing could make me happier than the opportunity to take a hundred bucks from Musk that he himself accidentally sent to me.

    Alright, plenty of things could make me happier. But it would still make me pretty happy.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Just as likely he’s now sending a pittance to other people in order to say he wasn’t targeting a group. You can send out a LOT of hundred dollar bills before you approach a billion.