The reported $1,000 was not a guaranteed payment to anyone who supported Brad Schimel. In a March 31, 2025, Gizmodo report, it was a possible total under an America PAC referral program: $20 for each approved photo of a Wisconsin resident endorsing Schimel, plus $200 for a block captain whose submissions covered 100 households. The written eligibility terms Gizmodo quoted required block captains to be registered Wisconsin voters, while Musk’s public pitch said participants did not need to live in Wisconsin.
What was the $1,000 offer?
Matt Novak’s Gizmodo report published March 31, 2025, the day before Wisconsin’s April 1 Supreme Court election, said Musk promoted payments at a Green Bay rally. Brad Schimel was running against Susan Crawford for a seat on the court.
The program described in the report paid $20 for each qualifying photo showing a Wisconsin resident holding an image of Schimel and giving a thumbs-up. It also offered a block captain an additional $200 after submissions covered 100 households. The $1,000 headline referred to a potential total someone might make in a day under the program—not a flat fee, guaranteed amount, or verified payment to a participant.
How the reported payment terms worked
- Photo payment: $20 for each qualifying photo, subject to approval.
- Household limit: The terms reported by Gizmodo limited each household to one $20 payment. A submission could be rejected if that household had already submitted a photo.
- Block-captain bonus: An additional $200 for submissions covering 100 households.
- Deadline: 8 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
- Payment timing: The reported terms did not promise a specific payment date and cautioned that participants should not necessarily expect payment within a month or even two months. They allowed partial payments on a rolling basis.
These were program terms described by Gizmodo, not audited payment records. The report does not establish how many people qualified or whether payments were ultimately made.
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Could people outside Wisconsin participate?
The public pitch and written terms conflicted. Musk was quoted in Gizmodo saying, “You don’t even need to be from Wisconsin, you just need to get people in the state to hold a picture of @TeamSchimel … in one hand and go thumbs up with the other hand.” But the report quoted America PAC’s written terms as saying: “To be eligible to be an approved Block Captain, the person must be a registered voter in Wisconsin and submit the requested information, including, but not limited to, an email address and cell phone number.”
The report also said block captains had to provide requested information and receive PAC approval, which America PAC could grant or deny at its discretion. It does not establish whether any nonresident was approved, or how the PAC resolved the difference between Musk’s public statement and the written eligibility condition.
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Was the offer ruled illegal?
Gizmodo reported that Wisconsin’s attorney general sued to stop Musk’s giveaways, an appellate court denied the requested relief on Saturday, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the matter on Sunday. Those are reported interim procedural events; they do not establish that a court finally ruled the incentives lawful or unlawful.
The report also raised legal questions about electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place. The precise rule and its application are not independently established here. No final court disposition is available in the material supporting this account, so the phrase “vote-buying scheme” should be understood as the article’s charged characterization, not an adjudicated legal finding.
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What the report does not establish
- That every eligible participant received payment, or that any particular participant received the potential $1,000 total.
- Whether a nonresident was approved as a block captain.
- A final judicial ruling on the legality of the incentives.
- The certified result of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
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