{"id":322571,"date":"2026-05-19T08:45:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322571\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:45:21","slug":"doj-charges-california-woman-for-allegedly-bribing-skid-row-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322571\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ charges California woman for allegedly bribing Skid Row homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOJ investigating Michigan voter fraud<\/a> <\/p>\n

Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, discusses the DOJ’s investigation into voter fraud in Michigan’s Wayne County, citing instances of fraudulent voting and non-compliance with the Help America Vote Act.<\/p>\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

The Department of Justice charged a California<\/a> woman with paying people \u2014 including homeless individuals on Los Angeles\u2019 Skid Row \u2014 to register to vote while she worked as a paid ballot-petition signature collector, according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

“False registrations undermine Americans\u2019 faith in elections<\/a> \u2013 even more so when payoffs are involved,” assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said in a press release Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling \u2013 so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence,” Dhillon added.<\/p>\n

MARYLAND BALLOT BLUNDER TRIGGERS GOP PUSH FOR FEDERAL REVIEW OF BLUE STATE’S VOTER ROLLS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The DOJ charged a California woman with paying people, including homeless individuals on Skid Row, to register to vote. (Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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, often paying people between $2 and $3, according to DOJ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was charged with one felony count of paying another person to register to vote and agreed to plead guilty, according to the DOJ. Armstrong made her initial court appearance Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CALIFORNIA WOMAN FACING FELONY CHARGES FOR REGISTERING HER DOG TO VOTE, CASTING 2 BALLOTS<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Armstrong was charged with a felony count of paying another person to register to vote, in which she could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. (Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Armstrong worked as a “petition circulator” for approximately 20 years, and would receive payment for each registered voter\u2019s signature, according to her plea agreement.<\/p>\n

The amount she was paid varied depending on the specific ballot initiative. Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ to clarify which initiatives and groups Armstrong was soliciting for and how much she was paid.<\/p>\n

The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom directed Fox News Digital to a post on X<\/a> when asked for comment.
“As we said when this was first discovered, anyone caught engaging in this activity should be investigated and prosecuted,” the Governor\u2019s press office wrote.<\/p>\n

Many members of Skid Row\u2019s homeless population were not registered to vote, so prosecutors said Armstrong brought voter registration forms with her and began offering payment to people to complete them.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Armstrong sometimes provided homeless individuals with her former Los Angeles address to list on voter registration forms, which registered them to vote in both California and federal elections.<\/p>\n

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS LAUNCH VOTER ID BALLOT PUSH, NEED 875K SIGNATURES BY DEADLINE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Harmeet <\/p>\n

“False registrations undermine Americans\u2019 faith in elections \u2013 even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. (Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

California automatically sends vote-by-mail ballots to every registered<\/a> voter, with prosecutors saying ballots in some individuals\u2019 names could potentially have been sent to Armstrong\u2019s former residence, where those individuals did not live or collect mail.<\/p>\n

Armstrong was charged with a felony count of paring another person to register to vote, in which she could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

Investigative reporter James O’Keefe took a victory lap over the indictment, citing O’Keefe Media Group first captured footage of the alleged scheme on Skid Row.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

Homeless people are eligible to register to vote so long as they have a location where mail can be received and “be properly assigned to a voting precinct,” according to the California Secretary of State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of the California governor and state attorney general for additional comment on the matter on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ashley J. DiMella reports on politics for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOJ investigating Michigan voter fraud Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, discusses the DOJ’s investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,989,19262,4515,27765],"class_list":["post-322571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-elections","tag-homeless-crisis","tag-justice-department","tag-voter-fraud-concerns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}