Shanekka Renee Johnson: My name is Shanekka Renee Johnson. I’m from Los Angeles, California. 39 years old.
Interviewer: You live in Skid Row.
Johnson: I live in Skid Row.
Interviewer: And then did they come down here and try to pay you to vote?
Johnson: Yes.
Interviewer: On a ballot?
Johnson: Yes.
Interviewer: How much they pay you?
Johnson: Five dollars.
Interviewer: Oh, they said, “Here, come and vote for these candidates.”
Johnson: Yes, sir.
Interviewer: They told you who to vote for. So they told you to vote for Karen Bass or Nithya Raman.
Johnson: Karen Bass.
Interviewer: Did you vote for Karen Bass for $5?
Johnson: Yes.
Interviewer: And they’re doing this for a lot of people?
Johnson: Yes.
Interviewer: How often do they come down here?
Johnson: Probably like three times a week.
Interviewer: Three times a week to get the ballots?
Johnson: Yeah.
Interviewer: Wow. To vote for Karen Bass?
Johnson: Karen Bass, or whoever else.
Interviewer: Nithya. Yeah, crazy. How long you been down here for?
Johnson: Been down here four years.
Interviewer: Four years? You’ve been seeing this happen all the time?
Johnson: Oh, yeah.
Interviewer: It’s like a whole business, huh?
Johnson: Most definitely.
Interviewer: Would you call it fraud?
Johnson: Yeah.
Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah, fraud behavior.
Johnson: Fraud behavior, yeah.
Interviewer: Taking advantage of the homeless community.
Johnson: Yeah.
Interviewer: Yeah, you got votes.
Johnson: That sounds bad, but you know, at the time I didn’t know that that was what was going on. I was just trying to make five bucks, you know.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Sounds good.
Johnson: But I didn’t do the fraud.