North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s office is looking into a political action committee created by Elon Musk, owner of X and Tesla, after the North Carolina State Election Board (NCSBE) received a complaint from a political activist claiming that it violated state rules.
Stein is running as the Democrat nominee for governor against Republican nominee Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
According to a report on CNBC.com, the complaint states that Musk’s America PAC was asking website users in North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin for personal data, such as their complete address, phone number, and zip code, under the guise of helping them register to vote, but then does not do so.
The complaint claims that site visitors in the other states are directed to voter registration pages for their state, but North Carolina users give personal information without being directed to voter registration.
The America PAC supports the Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
A spokesperson for Stein’s office told Carolina Journal in an emailed statement that they are looking into America PAC, but haven’t opened a formal investigation.
Political activist David Wheeler, who runs the American Muckrakers PAC, filed the complaint with the NCSBE. It states that data is being fraudulently collected and stored, which is a violation of many state laws.
NCSBE spokesman Pat Gannon told Carolina Journal that the complaint is being investigated.
“The complaint alleges that the organization is hosting a website that leads people to believe they are registering to vote, but no registration form is ever submitted to election officials,” he told Carolina Journal in an emailed statement.
“Under North Carolina law, a voter registration form must be submitted on an approved state form. To register online, a voter can only use the North Carolina DMV’s website, not a private website. If a person is not registering through the DMV’s website, they would have to fill out the approved state registration form, physically sign it, and send it to the board of elections or have someone deliver it for them.”
Gannon also said that North Carolina law makes it a crime for someone to fail to submit a voter’s registration form if that person has told a voter that they would be submitting the voter’s registration form.
Wheeler’s PAC has spent money opposing the election bids of Republican candidates, including former North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-CO. In 2022, he filed a lawsuit for libel against Boebert in North Carolina. A judge would later dismiss the case, stating the lawsuit should have been filed in Colorado.
The North Carolina complaint follows a similar situation in Michigan.
A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, told CNBC Sunday that the office is investigating the PAC to determine if the group has violated state law.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, told the outlet the PAC had not applied to use the state’s online voter registration interface.