The North Carolina Attorney General's Office said Monday it was investigating a political motion committee founded by billionaire Elon Musk after the state elections board received a grievance that the PAC was collecting personal information but was not helping users register to vote as promised.
The latest investigation, and an identical one announced Sunday by the Michigan Secretary of State's office, follows a report by CNBC that Musk's America PAC requested personal information comparable to zip code, full address and phone number from website users in swing states under the guise of helping them register to vote, without actually having that data.
In contrast, users of America PAC's site in states not considered competitive within the 2024 election were directed to the voter registration pages for his or her state.
The America PAC supports Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump within the 2024 election against Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic candidate.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X, has said he created the PAC and helped with financing It.
“Our office is aware of this issue and is investigating it,” a spokeswoman for North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said Monday via the PAC's website.
When asked for further details, she said: “Our office is looking into this, we have not yet launched a formal investigation.”
Stein is the Democratic candidate for governor of North Carolina.
A spokeswoman for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Sunday that the Democrats' office is currently investigating America PAC to find out whether the group violated state laws.
“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially when an organization claims to help people register to vote in Michigan or another state,” Benson's spokeswoman said that day.
Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin were among the many swing states where users of America PAC's website weren’t offered voter registration assistance despite guarantees of assistance.
Musk and a spokesman for America PAC didn’t reply to requests for comment Monday.
As of Monday, a user positioned in North Carolina who opens America PAC's website can now not click through to register as a voter after submitting their personal information, though the sites allow registration.
On Friday, shortly after the primary CNBC story about America PAC’s voter registration links was published, longtime political activist David Wheelersent a grievance concerning the PAC to the North Carolina Board of Elections.
According to a replica of the grievance viewed by CNBC, Wheeler alleged that America PAC had violated state law.
“The America PAC purports to run an online voter registration campaign,” Wheeler wrote. “However, they are simply collecting data on voters and fraudulently collecting and retaining confidential voter information in violation of numerous North Carolina laws.[s].”
Wheeler runs his own PAC, American Muckrakers, which has spent money to fight the campaigns of Republican candidates including former Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican, and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.
Representatives of the North Carolina State Board of Elections didn’t reply to requests for comment on Wheeler's grievance against America PAC.
On Monday, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt told CNBC that American PAC had not applied to make use of the state's online voter registration interface.
The Secretary of State’s office allowed each partisan and nonpartisan entities “that undergo rigorous security screening and agree to the Department’s terms of use” to hitch a Programming interface (API) to securely submit voter registration applications,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“America PAC has not applied to participate in this program, and the Department is not aware of any steps the organization is taking to submit electronic voter registration applications for processing,” the spokesperson wrote.
When asked whether America PAC's failure to use for this system would lead to an investigation by the Secretary of State or other legal consequences, he didn’t respond.
According to AdImpact, America PAC has spent greater than $100,000 on digital promoting targeting Pennsylvania voters since early July.
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