FBI Descends on Skid Row After Reports Homeless Were Paid to Vote for Democrat Candidates

Videos of residents claiming they received cash to cast ballots for specific candidates. Thousands registered at shelters with no beds. And the L.A. City Council just voted to let noncitizens vote. The feds have seen enough.

FBI agents and Homeland Security investigators fanned out across Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, conducting up to 50 interviews with homeless residents following reports that vulnerable people were paid cash to register, forge signatures, and cast mail-in ballots in the June 2 primary election.

The operation marked a major escalation in the federal government's probe of voting irregularities in Los Angeles, coming weeks after videos emerged of Skid Row residents claiming they had been bribed to vote for specific candidates. FBI Director Kash Patel made the administration's position clear: "Securing our elections is of the utmost priority for this FBI. If you mess with our elections, we will find you."

What the Videos Show

In clips that circulated widely after Election Day, Skid Row residents described being approached and offered money to fill out voter registration forms, forge signatures, and cast mail-in ballots. One man claimed he was paid $4 to vote for incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. He said he had negotiated up from the initial offer of $2. When asked about Councilwoman Nithya Raman, he confirmed she was also on the list. Challenger Spencer Pratt, he said, was not.

Raman's candidacy had an unusual trajectory in the primary, trailing well behind Pratt on Election Day before a late surge in mail-in ballots pushed her into second place. The timing and volume of those ballots are among the questions federal investigators are examining.

A System Built for Exploitation

Earlier reporting found more than 7,600 registered voters linked to shelters and social service addresses across Los Angeles, including 1,160 registrations connected to a single Skid Row mission. One homeless services drop-in center in Venice had 185 registered voters tied to its address despite offering no overnight accommodations. That organization received a $600,000 taxpayer-funded grant awarded by Raman while she chaired the City Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee.

California law allows homeless individuals to register using shelter addresses, a policy designed to expand access but one that critics argue creates obvious vulnerabilities. The state also mails ballots automatically to all registered voters with no controls on who returns them, counts ballots postmarked by Election Day for weeks afterward, and has no voter ID requirement.

The DOJ had already moved on this issue in May, charging a woman with paying Skid Row residents to register to vote in an earlier probe. Thursday's operation suggests the investigation has grown considerably since then.

The Federal Government Steps In

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed that his office is pursuing multiple election fraud investigations in California in coordination with the FBI, saying he is working to conduct a comprehensive audit of California's voter rolls. A federal prosecutor visited the LA County ballot processing facility in the days following the primary as questions mounted about the pace and integrity of ballot counting.

The Trump administration has made election integrity a priority, and the Skid Row operation is the most visible sign yet that federal authorities are willing to go where California's state and local officials have shown no interest in going.

Meanwhile, the City Council Votes to Expand Noncitizen Voting

The FBI operation landed the same week the L.A. City Council voted to advance a proposal allowing noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in city and school board elections. The measure passed 10-5. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, a Democratic Socialists of America-backed representative who introduced the proposal, framed it as a matter of fairness for immigrant residents.

The juxtaposition is difficult to ignore. Federal agents are on the streets of Skid Row investigating allegations that the current system is being exploited to manufacture votes for specific candidates. The city's response is to propose expanding that system to include people who are not citizens.

What Needs to Change

California's election system, as currently designed, relies on a level of good faith that the Skid Row investigation suggests is not universally present. Mail-in ballots sent automatically to every registered address, no voter ID, ballot counting that drags on for weeks, and registration rules that allow shelters with no beds to serve as the official address for hundreds of voters — each of these individually creates vulnerability. Together, they create a system that is, at minimum, extremely difficult to audit and, at worst, easy to exploit.

Federal prosecutors appear to agree. The only question is whether California's political class will wait for the indictments before acknowledging that the system needs reform, or whether they will wait even longer than that.