How an Elon Musk PAC is using voter data to help Trump beat Harris in 2024 election

• Tesla boss Elon Musk and other tech executives are funding a social media ad blitz to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
• The ads come as Musk uses his account on X, the social media platform he owns, to back the Republican nominee over the de facto Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Musk's America PAC is collecting data in more than a half-dozen swing states that could determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

If a voter in Michigan performs a search on Google, a somewhat shocking ad might pop up.

The ad shows a young man lying in bed late at night when someone else texts him, "Hey you need to vote," and then sends the man a video of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The man can hear the gunshots and people screaming in the background.

As Trump is rushed off stage with blood pouring down his face, the man watching the video types in response, "This is out of control. How do I start?"

The ad then displays a website for a group called America PAC.

The website says it will help the viewer register to vote. But once a user clicks "Register to Vote," the experience he or she will have can be very different, depending on where they live.

If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they'll be prompted to enter their email addresses and zip code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign up section.

But for users who enter a zip code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state's voter registration page, they instead are