Federal prosecutors say Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong paid people on Los Angeles’ Skid Row to register signatures tied to ballot initiatives, and that she sometimes offered cigarettes or a phone cord. She has agreed to plead guilty to one felony count and faces u
On a stretch of downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row. federal prosecutors allege a longtime signature gatherer offered money and other items in exchange for signatures meant to help put measures on the ballot.. The case. announced Monday. adds pressure to a wider federal push to scrutinize California’s voter system as a court fight over voter rolls moves into its appeal phase.
Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong. 64. of Marina Del Ray. agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying a person to register to vote. prosecutors said Monday.. She faces up to five years in prison.. For her work. Armstrong had spent 20 years gathering signatures for ballot initiatives. federal prosecutors said. and under the terms of her plea she would give people on Skid Row two to three dollars—or. prosecutors said. sometimes a cigarette or a phone cord—in exchange for their signature to help qualify a measure for the ballot.
Skid Row, prosecutors noted, has the densest concentration of homeless people in the county. Court records also say that starting in 2025, Armstrong would register neighborhood residents to vote, sometimes using her former home address.
At a news conference announcing the charge, Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S.. Attorney for the Central District of California. said federal investigators began looking into Armstrong after a video circulated by James O’Keefe. founder of far-right group Project Veritas. showed people on Skid Row being paid for their signatures.. “Once we saw these videos, we went to work,” Essayli said.. “We will keep prosecuting and exposing this problem.”
The new case lands as the federal government continues seeking to move forward with a lawsuit demanding California turn over its voter rolls for an audit.. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in January. calling the request “unprecedented and illegal. ” and saying federal authorities were trying to “abridge the right of many Americans to cast their ballots.” Oral arguments in the appeal are set to begin Tuesday.
Essayli said the state should take note of Armstrong’s case and welcome the audit “with an open arm.” Prosecutors also said Armstrong worked as a “petition circulator” and was paid to collect signatures to qualify measures for the ballot. explaining that petition circulators are typically paid per signature of registered voter they collect.
One federal case followed another in the same day’s announcement. with prosecutors describing both alleged election-related misconduct and a separate act of violence tied to a protest at a religious site.. The pairing left federal officials emphasizing enforcement as they ask courts to allow an expanded voter-roll review. even as the earlier voter-roll challenge was rejected as “unprecedented and illegal” by a judge.
Prosecutors also announced a hate crime charge Monday for Zaid Gitesatani, 28, of Carlsbad.. They allege he assaulted a Jewish man during a protest at a Pico Robertson synagogue in June 2024.. Prosecutors said the protest turned violent with clashes breaking out between pro-Palestinian supporters protesting an event hosted by the synagogue to promote land for sale in Israel. and pro-Israel counterprotesters.
Gitesatani is expected to make his initial appearance Monday afternoon.
Skid Row voter registration ballot initiatives federal prosecutors Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong pay-to-vote voter rolls audit appeal hate crime charge Zaid Gitesatani