DOJ charges California woman for allegedly bribing Skid Row homeless

The Justice Department has charged a California woman with paying people, including homeless people on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, to register to vote while she worked as a paid absentee ballot petition signature collector, according to federal prosecutors.

“Inaccurate records undermine Americans’ faith in elections, especially when it comes to payouts,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press release Monday. he said.

“This Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from unlawful interference so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence,” Dhillon said. he added.

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Marina del Rey resident “Anika” Brenda Lee Armstrong, 64, solicited signatures for official ballot initiatives, including in the Skid Row area of ​​downtown Los Angeles, and typically pays people between $2 and $3, according to the DOJ.

He was accused of paying another person to register to vote and agreed to plead guilty, according to the Justice Department. Armstrong made his first court appearance on Monday.

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Armstrong was charged with allegedly registering another person to vote, which is a felony and could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Armstrong worked as a “petition distributor” for nearly 20 years and would receive payment for the signature of every registered voter, according to the plea agreement.

The amount he was paid varied depending on the particular ballot initiative. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Justice to clarify which initiatives and groups Armstrong requested and how much he was paid.

Many members of Skid Row’s homeless population were not registered to vote, so prosecutors said Armstrong brought voter registration forms with him and began offering to pay people to fill out the forms.

Prosecutors said Armstrong sometimes provided homeless people with his old Los Angeles address to be listed on voter registration forms that allowed them to vote in both California and federal elections.

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“Inaccurate records undermine Americans’ faith in elections, even more so when payments are involved,” said Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

California automatically sends a mail-in ballot to every registered voter; Prosecutors say ballots named in some people’s names could have potentially been sent to Armstrong’s former residence, where those people did not live or collect mail.

Armstrong was charged with a felony for which he could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for attempting to register another person to vote.

Investigative reporter James O’Keefe took a victory lap against the indictment, claiming that O’Keefe Media Group captured the first footage of the alleged plot on Skid Row.

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According to the California Secretary of State, homeless people have the right to register to vote as long as they have a place to pick up mail and are “properly assigned to a voting precinct.”

Fox News Digital reached out to California’s governor and state attorney general for additional comment on the matter on Monday.