Election fraud scheme on L.A.'s skid row got homeless to sign fake names for cigarettes and cash, D.A. says
A forged signature swapped for $1 — or sometimes a cigarette.
The crude exchange played out hundreds of times on L.A.’s skid row during the 2016 election cycle and again this year, prosecutors said Tuesday as they announced criminal charges against nine people accused in a fraud scheme.
Using cash and cigarettes as lures, the defendants approached homeless people on skid row and asked them to forge signatures on state ballot measure petitions and voter registration forms, the district attorney’s office said. The defendants — some of whom were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday — face several criminal charges, including circulating a petition with fake names, voter fraud and registering a fictitious person.
The charges, which were filed three weeks ago but made public Tuesday, followed a Los Angeles Police Department crackdown on suspected election fraud on skid row earlier in the year.
“They paid individuals to sign the names,” Officer Deon Joseph, the senior lead officer on skid row, told The Times in September. “That’s an assault on our democracy.”
State officials said petition signature scams aren’t widespread in California, but Joseph said they do pop up from time to time on skid row. People hired to help qualify initiatives for the ballot are often paid per signature collected, typically $1 to $2, but officials said a recent slew of proposed ballot initiatives had pushed the rate as high as $6 a signature. It is illegal for the collectors, however, to pay people for signatures.
Los Angeles police Capt. Marc Reina said officials used undercover officers and security camera video before arresting Kirkland Kauzava Washington, 38, one of the nine individuals charged by prosecutors. Washington allegedly set up a card table outside the Midnight Mission, where homeless people line up for meals and shelter, Reina said.
Two other people arrested at the same time as Washington were either homeless or living in a single-room-occupancy apartment on skid row, but neither of them were among the nine defendants charged by L.A. County prosecutors.
“We didn’t charge any homeless people,” said district attorney spokeswoman Shiara Davila-Morales.
L.A. County elections chief Dean Logan previously said it was unlikely the forgeries eluded his staff, who manually compare petition signatures with those on registration forms. But, Logan said, he worried about “any activity that causes voters to lose faith in the process.”
Washington, Harold Bennett, 53, and Louis Thomas Wise, 36, face up to six years and four months in prison. The others charged — Richard Howard, 62, Rose Makeda Sweeney, 42, Christopher Joseph Williams, 59, Jakara Fati Mardis, 35, Norman Hall, 61, and Nickey Demelvin Huntley, 44 — face up to four years and eight months in prison
Remember how you Lefties always claim that voter fraud doesnt exist.
Please explain this:
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...e-ln-skid-row-voter-fraud-20181120-story.html
Remember how you Lefties always claim that voter fraud doesnt exist.
Please explain this:
...the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to “rig” an election.
The verdict is in from every corner that voter fraud is sufficiently rare that it simply could not and does not happen at the rate even approaching that which would be required to “rig” an election.
Just on this alone I would null and void all voting from California and declare a 90 day emergency decree and install all new judges, county councils, state representatives to congress people and governor. But President Trump lacks the balls to do so.
Just on this alone I would null and void all voting from California and declare a 90 day emergency decree and install all new judges, county councils, state representatives to congress people and governor. But President Trump lacks the balls to do so.
California would never do that. Mostly because Trump wanted it.
To throw our democracy in the trash and just pick out all of the representatives himself? Yes, thank god he doesn't have the "balls" to destroy ou r democracy. Shame on you for suggesting such nonsense. You certainly wouldn't be happy if Obama nullified your state's elections on a whim and replaced them all with loyalists.
Or because it's highly illegal and unconstitutional. Are you really that much of a nut that you think California only doesn't want the president to pick all of their representatives because they hate Trump? Do you think maybe there's another reason?
Just on this alone I would null and void all voting from California and declare a 90 day emergency decree and install all new judges, county councils, state representatives to congress people and governor. But President Trump lacks the balls to do so.
Your system has failed your agenda of your Pravda Manifesto. Don’t worry though. You can still hide behind the righteous......while they still don’t realize that’s what you’re doing that is.Just on that alone? Doesn't take much for some of you conservatives to wipe your ass with the Constitution and install autocracy does it? You were born in the wrong era, in the wrong country, and under the wrong flag.
california would never do that? They lost their right at collective representation.
They've been discussing secession.
And we will ignore the elephant the room...the REAL election rigging...gerrymandering.I'm pretty sure that nobody has claimed that voter fraud doesn't exist. But do you know what a major difference between America and a **** hole country is?
A **** hole country actually experiences routine voter fraud and blatant election rigging, whereas America is merely full of people who really, really want to look like a **** hole country by exaggerating anything and everything they can for a personal or political purpose.
On this site, you will find 21 private studies, 13 government investigations, and 6 court opinions.
But screw all that fact based dumb stuff. Go ahead and cling to your idea of things and obtusely rage on those darned "lefties."
And we will ignore the elephant the room...the REAL election rigging...gerrymandering.
Yeah.
I can post a very detailed recent history of attempts to shamelessly election rig, in which even the Supreme Court had to get involved, but I've learned that people on this site really don't care as a new wave of trolls are increasingly ruining discussions and threads. It's a waste of time.
Just on this alone I would null and void all voting from California and declare a 90 day emergency decree and install all new judges, county councils, state representatives to congress people and governor. But President Trump lacks the balls to do so.
Post a complete listing of states to be overhauled in force. I’m sure I would back any voter fraud violations in their entirety.
Good. Maybe they can resolve their water problems in their own ways. Not one democrat U S president can win without their electoral vote count.
You make yourself too obvious, kid. The best trolls are the clever ones.
Okay sparky. Whatever it takes you to get the brownie points. ( I hope you’re living in California and don’t know anyone off the west coast. )
ive seen where the confederacy had little hope in warfare without Texas troops. The pacific war was the same. I’m not from TEXAS originally, and I still think this state sucks. But it has been able to produce water from certain oil wells that that water has now been exported to California on a continuos basis now for 18 months straight. You can have our oil formation water. The Edwards aquafier water is good enough for me. I’m presently planning a move to either the UP, northern Wisconsin or NE Minn. all depends if the politics of the mining permits pending are proven to be free of political impedance.If California weren't in the Union, do you think that just maybe the number of electoral votes needed to win might change? I know, crazy idea....
Republicans can't win without Texas. They have actively discussed secession. Even did it once. California can go if they take Texas with them.
ive seen where the confederacy had little hope in warfare without Texas troops. The pacific war was the same. I’m not from TEXAS originally, and I still think this state sucks. But it has been able to produce water from certain oil wells that that water has now been exported to California on a continuos basis now for 18 months straight. You can have our oil formation water. The Edwards aquafier water is good enough for me. I’m presently planning a move to either the UP, northern Wisconsin or NE Minn. all depends if the politics of the mining permits pending are proven to be free of political impedance.
Remember how you Lefties always claim that voter fraud doesnt exist.
Please explain this:
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...e-ln-skid-row-voter-fraud-20181120-story.html
As a resident of Minnesota, I can confidently say that we don't want you here.
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