{"id":1035737,"date":"2026-08-31T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035737\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T22:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T22:20:10","slug":"marina-del-rey-woman-to-be-sentenced-for-paying-las-skid-row-homeless-to-register-to-vote-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035737\/","title":{"rendered":"Marina del Rey woman to be sentenced for paying LA\u2019s Skid Row homeless to register to vote \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Los Angeles County woman who worked as a longtime signature collector for ballot initiatives is expected to be sentenced<\/a> Monday for paying homeless people in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles between $2 and $3 to register to vote.<\/p>\n

Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, of Marina del Rey, pleaded guilty in June to one count of paying another person to register to vote, a federal charge that carries a penalty of up to five years behind bars.<\/p>\n

According to her plea agreement, for nearly 20 years, Armstrong periodically worked as a \u201cpetition circulator.\u201d In that role, she was paid by coordinators to collect voter signatures on official petitions that qualify initiatives, referendums and recalls for California state ballots. Prosecutors said Armstrong drove around the Los Angeles area to find registered voters to sign the petitions.<\/p>\n

After gathering enough signatures, Armstrong returned the petitions to her coordinators, who then paid her a set amount for each registered voter\u2019s signature. The amount she was paid varied depending on the specific ballot initiative. Because her coordinators only paid for signatures attributable to registered voters, Armstrong endeavored to ensure the people who signed her petitions were registered voters, court papers show.<\/p>\n

Armstrong admitted soliciting signatures in Skid Row. Federal prosecutors contend Skid Row was a convenient place for Armstrong to collect signatures because of its high concentration of people in a relatively small area who were willing to sign petitions in exchange for cash.<\/p>\n

Armstrong regularly paid amounts between $2 and $3 to induce people to sign her petitions, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFalse registrations undermine Americans\u2019 faith in elections \u2014 even more so when payoffs are involved,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division said in a statement when Armstrong was charged in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling \u2014 so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said some homeless people did not have an address to put on the forms, so on occasion, Armstrong provided her own former address in Los Angeles to write on the registration form. Such registration forms simultaneously registered an individual to vote in California elections and in federal elections.<\/p>\n

A video shot by conservative media figure James O\u2019Keefe and reposted by an account called \u201cReal America\u2019s Voice\u201d in May shows a woman handing cash to a homeless person. In a post on social media, O\u2019Keefe said his video led to Armstrong being charged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Los Angeles County woman who worked as a longtime signature collector for ballot initiatives is expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,356,5295,2499,9619,2961,224,6080,5337,17259,50,80,17024,52],"class_list":["post-1035737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-courts","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-downtown-los-angeles","tag-homeless","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-losangeles","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sentencing","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117192453542009939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}