Several charged for election fraud scheme in Los Angeles involving fake signatures for ballot measures.

Los Angeles' Skid Row. L.A. Times. 

Nine people were arrested for an election fraud scheme in Los Angeles involving paying homeless people for fake signatures for ballot measures. LA Times. The schemers would pay homeless people $1 or a cigarette to register to vote and sign ballot measures. California's ballot measures system is a popular way to change the laws in the State. However, the people involved in this plot were paying the homeless to help get those ballot measures on the ballot. Ballot workers are paid for the number of signatures they get but it is a crime to offer to pay for it. None of the homeless people involved in the scam were charged while the offenders have been charged with felonies. 

My Comment:

For all the people that say that voter fraud doesn't happen, here's another example of it occurring. Local officials downplayed how serious this is and claimed that no fake petition signatures were found, but I don't believe either account. It is good that these people were caught but it does call things into questions. 

It seems very unlikely that the local officials are right and this didn't effect ballot measures. They said that the check signatures against voter registration forms but the suspects in this case were paying off people to register as well! Depending on what ballot measure these people were trying to support it may have changed what was on the ballot. It's very possible that voters ended up voting for ballot measures that should never have been in the ballot if not for this fraud. 

It's unclear how widespread this fraud was. LA's Skid Row is one of the largest collection of homeless people in the state of California but it is far from the only one. Were there similar schemes in places like San Francisco, San Diego and other large California cities? We really don't know but I am guessing that this wasn't a one off thing. 

I have been rather annoyed that none of the articles I have read about this story have said what ballot initiatives these people were paying people to sign for. That seems like extremely relevant information but I haven't found it anywhere. California tends to have a ton of ballot measures every election so even ignoring the obvious political implications it's pretty much impossible to figure out which ballot measure these people were trying to scam. 

I would also be very interested in if these people were working for a specific organization. There are a ton of political organizations out there that try to register voters and gather signatures for petitions like this. If they put these workers up for it than they are just as guilty and should be charged as well. 

 Finally, I think the possible sentences are extremely lite. They are felonies, so these people shouldn't be able to vote themselves for quite some time, but they only face a maximum of six years and four months in prison. That seems like a very slight punishment for undermining the elections in California...