Ballot harvesters accused of secretly bribing Skid Row homeless into voting in election

A number of homeless people living in Los Angeles’ infamous skid row said petition circulators and election workers have been paying and bribing them for signatures and voter registrations.

Multiple people said they were given a few bucks to sign paperwork, sometimes not even in their own name, in interviews with FOX LA. “They will pay you to fill out the petition,” one resident said.

“Cigarettes, here you go. Money, here you go,” another recounted.

Many said they registered their address as a nearby church or homeless shelter. The largest concentration of homeless voters was at the Midnight Mission in Skid Row, where voting records show 1,160 registrations, The California Post exclusively reported.

The Midnight Mission has only beds for 84 men and 36 women. The LA County Registrar told FOX “individuals experiencing homelessness may register by identifying a location where they regularly stay.”

A number of individuals said many times, all the alleged bribers wanted was a signature.

“They have like a name already set for us and they just want the little signature,” one man said. “A lot of them do.”

The interviews come as scrutiny increases on allegations of voter fraud in California, particularly after Tuesday’s Los Angeles mayoral primary.

Last month, Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong agreed to plead guilty to bombshell charges that she paid homeless people on Skid Row to register to vote in a 20-year scheme tied to illegal petition signature collection.

She even let homeless people use her own address to register to vote, a plea agreement said. Payment ranged from money or cigarettes, and phone cords.

“Today’s an example where fraud did occur. Not only did Ms. Brown pay people to register to vote, which is illegal, it is a federal crime,” Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said. “She also induced them to place false information on the voter registration.”

Questions are now swirling whether last-minute ballot harvesting helped city councilmember Nithya Raman surge past Spencer Pratt in the primary in late ballot counts.

A Post review of records shows 7,600 voters tied to homeless shelters and service providers. Skid Row residents also told The Post that there were efforts to gather voter registrations, and some were paid to sign up voters.

“It was a big push to get a certain area of town registered to voting,” said Norman, who declined to give a last name.

Essayli said he will investigate the concerns uncovered by The Post and “follow the evidence” to see if the law has been broken. 

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