Elon Musk’s PAC is spreading inaccurate voting information, election officials say

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN

(CNN) — The texts from Elon Musk’s super PAC arrived last week, all with the same message to a group of Colorado voters: “Your ballot request is in,” they read. “Confirm now where and when to return it.”

But every active registered voter in Colorado automatically receives a mail ballot, and the message from Musk’s America PAC set off a flurry of calls and emails from confused residents to county offices.

“People were like, ‘Wait a second. I didn’t submit that request. Is something fishy going on? Did someone submit something on my behalf?’” said Carly Koppes, a Republican who is the election chief in Weld County, north of Denver.

Election officials in Colorado and Washington state have issued public warnings about inaccurate information from the group tied to Musk, the billionaire who is spending heavily to sway the midterm elections in Republicans’ favor.

Third-party groups long have engaged in voter-registration drives and other outreach to voters ahead of elections, sometimes relying on out-of-date commercially available information. But the PAC’s tactics have drawn particular scrutiny, given its heavy spending and unorthodox activity in previous elections — including controversial $1 million giveaways to encourage turnout.

A spokesman for America PAC did not respond to questions about the Colorado messages. In a post on X, the super PAC argued that Washington state officials were trying to “suppress” voter registration in criticizing the PAC’s activity.

Big investments

Musk, the world’s richest man, was the largest publicly disclosed donor of the 2024 federal election, spending nearly $300 million to elect President Donald Trump and Republicans in that cycle. And he’s once again plowing big money into politics, this time with the goal of helping the GOP retain control of Congress during the last two years of Trump’s presidency.

As of Friday morning, America PAC had reported spending nearly $40 million on independent expenditures to influence Senate and House contests, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.

The lion’s share of the spending, more than $31 million, has gone to shape Senate races, led by Texas, home to many of Musk’s businesses and the site of a fierce contest between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico.

So far in this cycle, Musk has disclosed donating about $50 million to America PAC and another $40 million to other Republican-aligned super PACs, along with smaller, direct donations to congressional candidates.

Not all of the money has benefited federal candidates. The total includes $5 million that Musk donated in May to a super PAC aiding Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid for Ohio governor. The two men helped create the federal Department of Government Efficiency that Musk briefly led at the start of Trump’s second term.

More details on Musk’s personal investments will be disclosed later this month when America PAC files a report covering the July-to-September quarter with federal regulators.

In the midterms, Musk’s team is focused on ground-level mobilization, with millions of dollars going to digital ads, phone messaging and printing expenses, federal records show.

America PAC’s digital advertising on platforms such as Facebook often starts with a provocative message attacking Democrats and aimed at encouraging Republicans to get to the polls. One focused on Texas shows a bearded man applying heavy makeup. “Don’t stay home while the crazy liberals elect radicals,” the ad says.

The ads direct users to check their voter registration status via VoteSafe.org. Once there, they are asked to supply personal information, including their cell phone numbers and email addresses, an avenue for the group to contact them through Election Day.

“By providing your telephone number and email, you consent to receive emails, calls and text messages from America PAC,” a disclosure reads. Additionally, the site warns that “the information about voting and registering to vote on this website is sourced from third parties and may not necessarily be accurate.”

Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist who runs the Center for Campaign Innovation, called the PAC’s activity “pretty standard get-out-the-vote tactics.”

And he said Musk’s political operation has added innovations through VoteSafe.org that state election officials could learn from, including an “America Pass” that voters can add to their Google or Apple wallets, keeping information about ballot deadlines and early voting windows close at hand.

“One of the jobs of campaigns in this country is to turn voters out,” Wilson said. “State election officials ought to be embarrassed that PACs and political campaigners have had to create a better process for informing and reminding voters about casting their ballots.”

Warnings from election officials

Still, in Washington state, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, has made a point of urging voters to steer clear of VoteSafe.org.

“Instead of relying on a website that itself warns its voting information may not be accurate, get accurate and timely information directly from your state and local election offices,” said a statement from Hobbs’ office. “That way you know that you’re giving your address, contact information, and personal data to actual election officials, not a third party that can’t actually register you to vote.”

In Colorado, Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold also has called on voters to rely on her office and county clerks “for accurate, trusted information” about the election after people who live north of Denver received text messages from America PAC.

She called the super PAC’s messaging “misleading.”

The texts in question targeted voters in both Weld and Adams counties, local officials said. Freshman GOP Rep. Gabe Evans faces Democrat and former state lawmaker Manny Rutinel there in a race that independent political handicappers rate as a tossup.

America PAC has reported spending more than $228,000 on the race to benefit Evans.

Adams County’s election chief Josh Zygielbaum, a Democrat, said he received about a dozen calls from voters with questions about the texts. Although it’s hard for him to tell how many voters received the message, “that volume of phone calls is usually a good indicator for us that something’s a bigger issue because people generally don’t pick up the phone these days unless there’s a bigger concern,” he said.

Koppes, the top election official in neighboring Weld county, said she’s “had to have some clarifying conversations” with voters to allay their worries.

“It’s a typical, normal thing during the election that third-party groups try to get out the vote,” Koppes said she’s explained to voters. “But we don’t control them or whether they use the correct verbiage.”

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