One of the worst tendencies in today’s era of reactive politics and knee-jerk media is the headlong jump to conclusions that fit one’s narrative. During a time of political polarization, especially during an election year where tensions are even higher than usual, there’s a tendency to assume the most malicious and nefarious motives. People forget the principle of Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Recently, the media has been saturated with stories about Elon Musk’s America PAC. While Musk’s name is not on the paperwork for the PAC, nor has he donated, he has stated publicly that he started the committee. Now, allegations have surfaced that the America PAC has unlawfully collected voter data in Michigan and North Carolina.
For several weeks, national and local publications have discussed issues with Musk’s America PAC, with a few media entities implying that the PAC is guilty of violating the law because of the information it collects from people trying to use its website to register to vote. The analyses of many of these publications, particularly those local to North Carolina, lacked the basic level of scrutiny from journalists, who didn’t seem to bother reviewing the statutes or seeing how other organizations register voters.
With a basic search of politically active organizations, you would see that many organizations that register voters throughout the United States and North Carolina collect the same information that Elon Musk’s America PAC did. Progressive-leaning organizations — such as Common Cause, the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, and even Vote.org — all collect personally identifying information from individuals before sending them on to voter-registration forms.
Does that mean these progressive organizations violate North Carolina law by collecting this information? The simple answer is no.
Although North Carolina law bans anyone other than election officials or those authorized by law from retaining Personal Identifiable Information from an individual’s registration forms, voter registration organizations can require that a separate opt-in form with this information be completed before providing a link to register to vote.
At least in North Carolina, those organizations are well within their rights to retain that information because it’s collected from a separate document, not the voter registration form. Almost all organizations that register voters operate in this way including, the National Republican Party.
The lack of journalistic scrutiny on this matter can best be seen from one of the state’s largest media outlets, WRAL. In a recent episode of WRAL’s podcast, “The Wrap,” a reporter discussed the subject after having interviewed the man who filed the complaint against the America PAC, who also operates his own PAC in North Carolina. Rather than critically examining the law in question or reviewing the actions of other voter registration organizations, WRAL reporters assumed David Wheeler, a progressive activist and former Democratic candidate for North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance, was an expert and fully understood the law because he runs a PAC himself, even though his PAC is not one that registers voters.
Though reports acknowledge Wheeler is a partisan activist, they fully buy into — and perpetuate — his misrepresentation of the law and his assertions that Elon Musk’s PAC is breaking the law by maliciously preventing individuals from voting.
The complaint filed by Wheeler centers on the assumption that Elon Musk’s PAC is purposefully misleading voters to collect personally identifying information. This assumption of misleading voters on North Carolina law with “intent and effect” to discourage them from voting is central to the felony allegation made by Wheeler against the PAC. Wheeler and other Democratic operatives assume that the PAC initially tried to prevent voters from registering in the state, but this makes no sense. Wheeler’s accusation falls flat once you realize that the America PAC was not taking information from the registration form, but an opt-in form as other voter registration organizations do.
CNBC, the organization that broke the story, reported that those familiar with the PAC’s website indicate it was properly formed in May to register voters. Given the fact that only registrants in toss-up states where the PAC was operating were having issues trying to fill out opt-in forms, some part of the code for the website likely failed, thus failing to provide would-be voters a link to the state’s DMV website in order to register to vote. This issue is more than likely one born of technological failures on the PAC’s website than it is an attempt to misrepresent the law.
Actions taken by the PAC in response to the registration issues make it unlikely that the committee acted intentionally. For example, since July, the PAC spent $800,000 on advertising in battleground states to get citizens to register. The America PAC was created only in May, after which it attempted to create a website to register voters in all 50 states, abruptly fired its election canvassing team, and replaced top leadership of the committee, all in the span of just over two months. These actions seem to indicate a lack of preparedness, rather than intent to mislead.
With these facts in mind, one should remember Hanlon’s Razor and assume the committee was not acting in malice. If we simply assume that all technological issues are born of malice, any time a website for registering to vote or requesting absentee ballots fails to send even a single individual to the proper DMV website, the host organization would be subject to — at minimum — a Class 2 misdemeanor.