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Wisconsin board finds probable cause Musk violated election bribery law

techJul 14, 2026395,056

The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission found probable cause that Elon Musk likely violated state election bribery law by promising to hand out $1 million checks to voters in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election and voted 5-1 to refer two complaints to the Brown County district attorney. The referrals, filed by voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay, note Musk made a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted “in order to induce them to vote in that election.” Prosecutors have 40 days to report back to the commission and may decide whether to bring criminal charges. Musk handed out checks at a Green Bay rally; three Wisconsin voters received checks, and two received them in person there. Musk and groups he supported spent at least $20 million on the Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel, who lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed Susan Crawford; total spending in the race exceeded $100 million, making it the costliest judicial contest in U.S. history. The referrals come alongside a pending lawsuit from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign seeking to bar Musk from offering cash payments in the state and a separate suit by the state’s Democratic attorney general that failed in court to stop two check deliveries. Musk’s lawyers argued in 2025 filings that the giveaways were protected political speech intended to mobilize opposition to “activist judges.”

🗽LOLGOP🗽
@thefarce.org

The most egregious act of electoral fraud in American history. It was accompanied by numerous similar frauds, many of them legalized by the FEC, which largely just gave up enforcing campaign finance law after Citizens United and legalized nearly all coordination between PACs and campaigns.

6156h ago
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