LOS ANGELES – In a shocking development raising fresh questions about election integrity in deep-blue California, undercover footage from O’Keefe Media Group’s Citizen Journalism Foundation has captured what appears to be a systematic effort to harvest fraudulent voter registrations on Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row.
The hidden-camera video, released amid ongoing controversy over the city’s June 2026 mayoral primary, shows petition circulators allegedly supplying homeless individuals with pre-filled voter registration forms using the names and addresses of already-registered voters, then instructing them to forge signatures.
According to the footage first highlighted by James O’Keefe, circulators were seen correcting names for the signers and directing them to use different identities. In some instances, cash and drugs were reportedly offered as incentives, continuing a pattern documented in earlier OMG investigations that contributed to federal charges against at least one signature gatherer.
“LA election petitioners were caught on tape giving homeless individuals other voters’ information, instructing them to forge voter names and signatures, and offering cash and drugs as incentives to register to vote,” the video description states.
This latest exposé comes as progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman surged past reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the final tally of mail-in ballots to secure a spot in the November runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Raman overtook Pratt days after the initial count, thanks to a flood of late-arriving ballots in California’s expansive vote-by-mail system.
Critics, including supporters of Pratt, have pointed to the timing and volume of these ballots, coinciding with reports of inflated voter registrations at homeless shelters, as evidence of potential manipulation. One X post noted the curious parallel of roughly 43,000 new ballots aligning with the city’s massive homeless population.
O’Keefe’s team has repeatedly documented similar activity on Skid Row, where circulators admitted to earning $7 to $10 per signature while targeting vulnerable individuals. In prior videos, homeless participants were allegedly encouraged to use fake addresses and sign multiple times. One earlier case led to federal charges against Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, a longtime petition circulator who pleaded guilty to paying people to register to vote.
Federal prosecutors have credited O’Keefe’s footage with helping spark investigations, underscoring what many conservatives have long warned: California’s lax election rules, including no-excuse mail-in voting and weak signature verification, create ripe conditions for abuse.
“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections, even more so when payoffs are involved,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon has stated in related cases.
The controversy has fueled broader calls for reform. President Trump and election integrity advocates have demanded audits and stricter oversight of mail ballots, arguing that incidents like those on Skid Row erode public trust. Meanwhile, local Democrats and election officials have downplayed the videos as isolated or unproven, insisting the system is secure.
Yet with Los Angeles grappling with record homelessness, skyrocketing crime, and failing public services under one-party rule, the optics of exploiting society’s most vulnerable for political gain are devastating.
As California heads into the November runoff between Bass and Raman, both Democrats, many are left asking: How many more “irregularities” will it take before real accountability is demanded?
