Shocking videos posted on social media show multiple homeless Skid Row residents claiming they accepted cash payments ranging from $2 to $5 in exchange for voting for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and city councilwoman Nithya Raman in last week's mayoral election.
Spencer Pratt was eliminated from the mayoral race on Monday, after Raman secured the number two spot in what many believe was a mathematically improbable surge in votes from post-Election Day mail-in ballots.
A man who identified himself as Kevin Shepherd says he cast a mail-in ballot for Bass after being offered $2 and negotiating the payment up to $4. He says he completed the ballot and deposited it into a ballot box. When asked whether payments extended to Raman as well, Shepherd confirmed they did. He also told investigators that outreach workers showed up in the area "three to five times a week" in the weeks leading up to the election, with multiple organizations cycling through.
Rene Johnson, 39, told a similar story. She says she received $5 after being directed to vote for Bass and describes groups regularly moving through Skid Row asking residents to sign paperwork.
"But, you know, at the time, I didn't know that that was going on," Johnson said. "I was just trying to make five bucks, you know? But I didn't do the fraud." Asked directly whether she believed the arrangement amounted to fraud, Johnson did not hesitate. She called it "fraudulent behavior" and said she believed people were being taken advantage of.
A third, unidentified woman who says she lives on the street described a recurring pattern of politically motivated visits. "It was like two bucks," she said of her payment, adding that "yeah, they come out here all the time." A fourth resident, Mark Sanchez, says canvassers paid him on multiple occasions to sign materials tied to local officeholders. "To sign a petition for the mayor or different things in office, and they paid me $4 or $5 in different accounts," Sanchez said. "It happened more than four or five times."
The content creator who filmed the videos says a friend who works nearby tipped him off after witnessing political volunteers operating in the area during the run-up to Election Day. He spent roughly two hours talking to residents. "Everybody said it was normal," he said, describing what he heard on the street about the paid ballot activities.
Don Garza, a disabled military veteran who has lived on Skid Row since 1999, offers perhaps the sharpest indictment of what has allegedly gone on there. He says voter registration drives run by nonprofit organizations have been a fixture of life in the area for years. "We are tired of it. We don't want people coming in and deciding elections and taking advantage of us," Garza said. "Every one of them thinks they have claim to our voice. They think they speak for us."
The California Post previously reported that thousands of homeless voters were registered at Los Angeles shelters despite many not actually residing at those facilities. A Venice shelter with 185 registered Raman voters received $600,000 in taxpayer money with ties to Raman's office. The pattern suggests something more systematic than a few isolated transactions.
Ballot harvesting, which involves collecting completed mail ballots and delivering them on voters' behalf, remains legal in California, but the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has published a how-to guide that illustrates how close that line can be pushed.
The California Post could not independently verify the residents' accounts on camera. However, it is hard to dismiss the consistency of the testimony across multiple unconnected individuals.
However, paying people to vote is clearly illegal. California Elections Code Section 18521 prohibits any person from receiving money, gifts, loans, or other consideration in exchange for voting or refraining from voting for any particular candidate. Section 18522 makes the flip side equally illegal, barring anyone from offering or providing such inducements. Violations carry criminal penalties.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli says his office will investigate the concerns the Post has uncovered and will "follow the evidence" to determine whether the law was broken.