Skid Row Signature Scam? Undercover Video Puts California Petition Fraud Back in the Spotlight

Undercover reporting in Los Angeles appears to show homeless individuals being paid to sign ballot petitions using other voters' names and addresses.

Mar 25, 2026

California already has enough election trust problems without people allegedly turning Skid Row into a three-dollar signature mill. But that is exactly what undercover footage released by O'Keefe Media Group appears to show. According to the reporting, petition circulators in Los Angeles were allegedly paying homeless individuals cash and offering cigarettes or marijuana in exchange for signatures on ballot petitions, sometimes using the names and addresses of registered voters who did not actually sign.

If that is what happened, this is not some harmless technical foul. It goes straight to the heart of whether petition drives in California are legitimate, whether voter records are being abused, and whether anyone in power still believes election law should mean what it says.

What the undercover footage appears to show

The Daily Caller reported that undercover journalists working with James O'Keefe took the footage to Los Angeles residents whose names and addresses were allegedly used on petitions. One resident said a woman named Vicky Walker had not lived at his address for at least nine years, yet he still receives her ballot. Another man, Paul Sun, was shown video of a homeless individual allegedly signing a petition under Sun's name and address.

That is not a paperwork mix-up. That is a flashing red warning light.

According to the O'Keefe Media Group report, journalists documented at least 28 cash-for-signature exchanges over just a few days in the Skid Row area. Petitioners were allegedly paid between $7 and $10 per signature, while some homeless signers were reportedly offered only a few dollars, along with cigarettes or marijuana. Because of course the people doing the dirty work always seem to get the smallest cut.

"If you mess up, I can't get paid," one signature gatherer allegedly said in footage cited by the Daily Caller.

The details matter

One homeless man allegedly told an undercover journalist he was getting paid $3 while signing 14 names
The Daily Caller reported that a signature gatherer watched closely to make sure the petition was filled out correctly because, in his words, mistakes meant he would not get paid
O'Keefe Media Group said voter information including full names, addresses, and signatures appeared to come from registered voter lists
The petitions reportedly involved major political and labor fights, including healthcare tax proposals and Los Angeles wage disputes

That last point matters. This was not random street chaos. It appears tied to organized political and policy campaigns with real money behind them.

California law is not vague here

California Elections Code Section 18613 states that any person who signs an initiative, referendum, or recall petition using a fictitious name or the name of another person is guilty of a felony and can face imprisonment. California Penal Code Section 470 also makes it a crime to sign another person's name with intent to defraud.

O'Keefe Media Group also cited California Elections Code Section 18603 and federal law, 52 U.S.C. §10307(c), which bar paying people for registration or petition activity in unlawful ways.

In plain English: if the allegations are true, this is not clever campaign work. It is fraud.

Why this hits a nerve with voters

Grassroots conservatives have been warning for years that bloated voter rolls, weak verification, and political machines that treat rules like suggestions create the perfect environment for abuse. California's political class has spent a long time acting offended whenever anybody points that out. Now an undercover video lands showing people on Skid Row allegedly signing names for cash.

So here is the obvious question: who exactly benefits from making verification sound mean and accountability sound extreme?

You already know the answer.

The Daily Caller report noted that residents shown the footage were disturbed to see their names and addresses allegedly being used. And they should be. If your name can show up on a petition you never signed, what confidence are you supposed to have in the rest of the process?

The bigger issue is trust

Petitions are supposed to reflect actual public support. They are the door voters use to put ideas on the ballot, challenge elected officials, and shape public policy. Once fraudulent signatures enter the pipeline, the whole process gets contaminated.

That means:

Legitimate signatures are diluted by fake ones
Campaigns that follow the law are put at a disadvantage
Public faith in direct democracy drops even further
Every future petition fight becomes another battle over whether the system can be trusted at all

And that is before you even get to the taxpayers. O'Keefe Media Group's report raised additional questions about organizations operating near the activity and the broader network around petition operations. Those claims deserve investigation too. Quickly.

What should happen next

California officials should not brush this off as another weird local story. If the state is serious about election integrity, investigators should determine where the names came from, who financed the circulators, which petitions were affected, and whether criminal charges are warranted.

Not next year. Now.

Because if people are forging signatures on one of the most visible streets in Los Angeles, in broad daylight, while everyone is apparently supposed to shrug, then the real scandal is bigger than one petition scam. The real scandal is a political culture that stopped being shocked by fraud a long time ago.

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