Homeless people on Skid Row were paid to register to vote, feds charge

A Marina Del Rey woman was charged with paying Skid Row residents to register to vote and sign ballot initiatives. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying a person to register to vote and faces up to five years in prison. For signatures, she paid two to three dollars or sometimes provided a cigarette or a phone cord. She worked for 20 years gathering signatures for ballot initiatives and planned to register neighborhood residents to vote starting in 2025, sometimes using her former home address. Federal prosecutors said they investigated after videos circulated showing people on Skid Row being paid for signatures. The case is part of efforts to crack down on alleged voter fraud in California.

"A longtime signature gatherer will plead guilty to paying homeless people on Skid Row to help get initiatives on the ballot, federal prosecutors said Monday, part of an effort to crack down on what they claim is widespread voter fraud across the state. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong,64 of Marina Del Ray, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying a person to register to vote, prosecutors announced Monday. She faces up to five years in prison."

"Armstrong, who worked for 20 years gathering signatures for ballot initiatives, would give people on Skid Row two to three dollars - or, sometimes, a cigarette or a phone cord - in exchange for their signature to help qualify a measure for the ballot, according to her plea agreement. Skid Row, an area in downtown Los Angeles, has the densest concentration of homeless people in the county."

"Starting in 2025, Armstrong would also register neighborhood residents to vote, sometimes using her former home address, according to court records. Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, said they began investigating Armstrong due to a video circulated by James O'Keefe, founder of far-right group Project Veritas, showing people on Skid Row getting paid for their signatures."

""Once we saw these videos, we went to work," said Essayli at a news conference announcing the charge. "We will keep prosecuting and exposing this problem." The announcement comes as the federal government seeks to push forward with their demanding California turn over its voter rolls for an audit. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in January, calling the request "unprecedented and illegal," and said federal authorities were trying to "abridge the right of many Americans to cast their ballots.""

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