Getty imagesBillionaire Elon Musk gave checks of $ 1 million (£ 770,000) to Wisconsin voters after the State Supreme Court refused to intervene.
Musk announced the price earlier this week, before the closely disputed elections of the Supreme Wisconsin Court which will be held on Tuesday.
The attorney general of the Wisconsin and Democrat Josh Kaul had continued to stop the gift, arguing that Musk violated a law of the state which prohibits gifts in exchange for votes.
The race, which could reverse the Supreme Court of the State to the Republicans, has become a flash point and the most expensive judicial election in American history.
Speaking during a rally on Sunday evening, Musk said that “we want the judges to be judges”, before distributing two $ 1 million checks (£ 750,000) to voters who had signed a petition to arrest the “militant” judges.
Kaul had tried to assert that the gift was an illegal attempt to buy votes. Musk’s lawyers, in response, argued that Kaul “retained Mr. Musk’s political speech and reduced his rights to the first amendment.”
Musk’s lawyers added that payments were “intended to generate a basic movement in opposition to militant judges, so as not to expressly defend for or against a candidate”.
After two lower courts were supported with Musk, Kaul begged the Supreme State Court for an 11th hour stay. But the Haut Court unanimously refused to hear the case.
Musk and President Donald Trump approved a conservative candidate, the county judge of Waukesha, Brad Schimel, in the hope of overthrowing the liberal court.
Judge Schimel presents himself against Dane County Judge, Susan Crawford, who was approved by liberal judges of the Supreme Court of the State.
Tech Titan lawyers also argued that judges who had publicly approved Judge Crawford in the Supreme Court race should be prohibited from deciding on the issue, arguing that it is a question of bias.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court at the Supreme Court is considered by political observers as a referendum on Trump’s second term, just a few months after its inauguration.
These are also substantial cases which will land before the court on abortion rights, the redistribution of the congress and the voting rules which could affect the mid-term elections of 2026.
Musk himself led the election as a chance to stop the redistribution which could make the favor of the Democrats at the Congress.
He donated $ 14 million to the Schimel judge’s campaign, because the race turns out to be the most expensive judicial race in the country’s history, with 81 million dollars in total spending.
Despite his support, judge Schimel has seemed to be a distance from Musk in recent days, saying to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Friday that he did not intend to be in the rally.
“I have no idea what he is doing. I have no idea what this rally is,” Judge Schimel told the newspaper.
This is not the first time that Musk has announced a gift to voters. Last year, he also offered a cash price of $ 1 moult to Wisconsin voters and six other battlefield states if they signed a petition supporting the rights of the first and the second amendment.
A judge in Pennsylvania later ruled that the gift was legal, saying that the prosecutors had not proved that it was an illegal lottery.
