Back in my 2000 California Law Review article, Vote Buying, I wrote about how some jurisdictions, such as California permitted payments for people to register or to vote (so long as those payments were not made to induce people to vote for or against a particular candidate or ballot measure). Such payments were only allowed when there were no federal candidates on the ballot, because payments for turnout violate federal law.

Now, in the wake of Elon Musk’s controversial (and I’ve argued, illegal) lotteries to get people to vote in the 2024 elections, California has passed a new law, to be codified in Elections Code section 18107.5 that bans the practice of payments for turnout. The new law reads in part:

(a)(1)A person who knowingly or willfully pays or offers to pay money or oth

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