Elon Musk Pushes Election Conspiracy Theories on Pennsylvania Voters
Tech billionaire Elon Musk peddled a number of baseless election conspiracy theories at a Thursday town hall in Pennsylvania, the first stop in his week-long tour as a Trump campaign surrogate.
Asked by an audience member about supposed “cheating” during the 2020 election, Musk falsely suggested that voter fraud had been a widespread issue, referencing vague problems with “mail-in ballots” and “proof of citizenship,” while demanding that the country switch to “paper ballots”—though paper ballots are in fact already used in the overwhelming majority of U.S. jurisdictions.
Musk also rehashed the now thoroughly debunked myth that an election tech company called Dominion Voting Systems rigged the vote for president Joe Biden in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Dominion and Fox News reached a $787-million settlement last year, after Fox aired similar false statements regarding the 2020 election.
“There’s always a question of, like, say, the Dominion voting machines,” Musk said, nonetheless. “It is weird that, I think, they’re used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County, but not a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”
According to a Reuters fact-check, Dominion voting machines were used in at least 24 states. But they were not, in fact, used in Philadelphia in 2020, the company said in a statement. The city instead used voting machines from a company called ES&S.
“Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts,” a Dominion spokesperson said.
Musk has lately displayed a marked disregard for verifiable facts, matched only by his growing affection for former President Donald Trump. The tech billionaire donated almost $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC last quarter and appeared on stage with Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this month. He has also used his personal account on X, where he has 200 million followers, to amplify the former president’s grievances and lies about crime, immigration and the federal hurricane response.
In his appearance on Thursday, Musk rattled through talking points on those and other subjects, including censorship and the Second Amendment. He compared conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border to the movie World War Z, in which civilization is toppled by a zombie apocalypse.
After the rally, Musk also announced on X that his super PAC will pay $100 to every Pennsylvania voter who signs a one-line petition affirming their support for the First and Second Amendments.
Trump has publicly promised Musk a prominent role in his administration, should he win in November.
