# Wisconsin Election Panel Finds Probable Cause Musk Broke Bribery Law With $1 Million Voter Checks
A bipartisan Wisconsin oversight board has determined there’s likely cause to believe billionaire Elon Musk violated state election law when he distributed seven-figure checks to voters ahead of a hotly contested state Supreme Court race last year, setting the stage for a potential criminal case against one of the world’s wealthiest men.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted last week to send two formal complaints to prosecutors in Brown County, home to Green Bay, where Musk appeared at a campaign rally days before the April 2025 election and personally handed checks to voters. ,The commission found probable cause in a closed-session vote that Musk violated state law by making a social media post that offered one million dollars to individuals who voted in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court election in order to induce them to vote.,
## Prosecutors Now Hold the Decision
The referral puts the matter squarely in the hands of Brown County District Attorney David Lasee, a Republican who has not yet publicly addressed the case. ,The Wisconsin Elections Commission referred the two complaints to the district attorney’s office, which can choose to bring criminal charges over violating the state law against election bribery, and prosecutors have 40 days to report back to the commission.,
The commission itself is evenly split along party lines, underscoring the significance of a decision that crossed partisan boundaries. ,The Wisconsin Elections Commission, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 in closed session to refer the complaints to the district attorney.,
The underlying complaints came from ordinary voters rather than political operatives. ,The complaints, which remain confidential under state law, were brought by voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay, where Musk handed out checks at a rally just days before the election., Representatives for Musk have not responded to requests for comment on the commission’s findings.
## A Record-Shattering Race Gone Wrong for Musk
The controversy stems from Musk’s aggressive push to tilt the ideological balance of Wisconsin’s highest court, a body that frequently rules on issues ranging from redistricting to abortion access in the perennial swing state. ,Musk was deeply involved in the effort to flip majority control of the court, with the tech titan and allied groups spending at least $20 million backing Republican-supported candidate Brad Schimel.,
Despite the massive financial investment, the strategy backfired spectacularly. ,Schimel lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford., The defeat proved costly enough that ,a month after the lopsided loss, Musk announced he would be spending far less on political campaigns going forward., Even so, the race left its mark on political history — ,total spending on the election topped $100 million, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.,
According to reporting, ,three Wisconsin voters ultimately received checks from Musk, including two who were handed theirs in person at the Green Bay rally., The million-dollar giveaways followed an earlier tactic by Musk’s political operation: ,roughly two weeks before the election, Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, offered $100 to voters who signed a petition opposing “activist judges,” or who referred someone else to sign it.,
Crawford’s victory reshaped the court’s ideological makeup, and the shift has only deepened since. ,Crawford’s win kept liberals in control of the state Supreme Court, and their majority grew to 5-2 after Democratic-backed candidate Chris Taylor’s victory this year.,
## Separate Civil Lawsuit Still Pending
The criminal referral is not the only legal jeopardy Musk faces stemming from the checks. ,A government watchdog group, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, has already filed a lawsuit seeking to permanently bar Musk from offering cash payments to voters in the state again, alleging that Musk and two groups he funds violated prohibitions on vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries, and that his actions amounted to an unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance., That case remains active in Brown County court.
Notably, this isn’t the first time authorities have tried and failed to stop Musk’s check-writing campaigns. ,Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general previously sued to block Musk from handing over checks to two voters, but state courts rejected that effort.,
## Musk’s Legal Team Cites Free Speech
Musk’s attorneys have consistently defended the payments as constitutionally protected political speech rather than illegal inducements. ,In legal filings from 2025, Musk’s attorneys argued that he was exercising his free speech rights with the giveaways, and that any attempt to restrict that activity would violate both the Wisconsin and U.S. constitutions., The defense hinges on framing the payments as advocacy rather than vote-buying: ,his legal team argued the payments were “intended to generate a grassroots movement in opposition to activist judges, not to expressly advocate for or against any candidate.”,
The Wisconsin episode also wasn’t Musk’s first experiment with cash incentives tied to elections. ,His political action committee used a nearly identical tactic before the 2024 presidential election, offering to pay $1 million a day to voters in Wisconsin and six other battleground states who signed a petition supporting the First and Second amendments — an effort a Pennsylvania judge allowed to continue through Election Day after prosecutors failed to prove it constituted an illegal lottery.,
With Brown County prosecutors now weighing whether to pursue criminal charges, the case could set a significant precedent for how far political spenders can go in courting voters with direct cash incentives — and whether Musk’s deep pockets and free-speech arguments will once again shield him from legal consequences, or whether this time, Wisconsin’s bribery statute will hold.