California launches probe after video shows petition gatherers offering money for signatures
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California election officials said Friday they are investigating whether signature gatherers in San Francisco illegally offered to pay people to sign ballot petitions using fake names.
A video posted on X on Monday shows a sign reading “Sign the $5 petition” and a line of people waiting on the sidewalk. A woman sitting at a folding table is seen instructing the name and address to be used to fill out the petition. When the registrar asked what the petitions were for, the woman said, “Sign.”
The California secretary of state’s office said in a statement that it was “aware of the matter and is investigating it.”
In California, people can put measures on the ballot for voter approval by collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures. Campaigns pay people per signature They collect and encourage workers to buy as much as possible.
At least one of the petitions seen in the video was for a tech-enabled ballot measure tax proposal for billionaires. The project is being funded by Building a Better California, a committee of wealthy business leaders, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who gave $20 million.
Molly Weedn, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the signature gatherers do not work directly for the campaign. He said the campaign cooperated with authorities to reject petitions raised with false information.
“We do not tolerate such activities under any circumstances,” Weedn said in a statement. “Our campaign took immediate action and campaign attorneys notified authorities.”
He said the campaign notified election officials as soon as the video surfaced.
The video also featured another ballot petition funded by Building a Better California for a measure that would ban a new tax on retirement savings. Spokesperson Nathan Click said the campaign “does not tolerate fraudulent activity in any signature collection process.”
“As soon as we became aware of the activities in question, we requested that our signature collection company identify the person circulating the petition and reject all petitions sent by this person,” Click said in a statement.
There were numerous petitions on the table, and it is unclear whether they were for additional campaigns.
The secretary of state’s office said offering money or other gifts in exchange for ballot signatures is illegal under the state’s election law. The signatures on the petitions are examined and verified against voter registration records, and signatures that do not match are not counted.
“It is also a crime to distribute, sign and/or file any initiative petition known to contain false names to an election official,” the office said in a statement.
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Associated Press journalist Sophie Austin contributed.
