Thousands of people experiencing homelessness were registered to vote using the addresses of Los Angeles shelters and service providers, even though many did not live at those locations and some of the facilities do not offer overnight beds.
The issue has drawn new attention after Spencer Pratt was eliminated by Nithya Raman in the mayor’s race Monday night. One drop-in center tied to the registrations, St. Joseph Center in Venice, lists 185 registered voters at its address, despite not providing accommodations. The organization previously received a $600,000 taxpayer-funded grant awarded by Raman while she chaired the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee.
The findings have prompted U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli to say his office will look into the concerns uncovered by The Post and “follow the evidence” to determine whether any laws were broken.
A review of public records found roughly 7,600 voters registered at homeless shelters, service providers, supportive housing sites, addiction treatment facilities and social services locations across Los Angeles.
St. Joseph Center was among the addresses identified. Last week, The Post contacted Raman’s campaign and the center for comment about the relationship between the councilmember and the organization but did not receive a response. After the inquiries, a photo showing Raman presenting the $600,000 check was removed from the center’s website.
Martin Rowe, a homeless man living in Venice, told The Post he was registered to vote during an outreach effort outside a Ralphs grocery store.
“They asked you all the questions,” Rowe said. “They gave you a paper.”
The largest cluster of registrations was tied to the Midnight Mission in Skid Row, where records show 1,160 registered voters. According to the mission’s website, however, the facility has beds for 84 men and 36 women.
Outside the Midnight Mission, The Post spoke with a homeless man named Norman, who said voter registration drives have been common in the area for years. He claimed he was previously paid to help register people and said cigarettes were offered to some individuals during those efforts.
“It was a big push to get a certain area of town registered to voting,” Norman said. He declined to provide his last name, citing a pending court case.
“They are just doing it because we’re here. You see people sitting around. It’s just a few lines to sign and you’re a registered voter.”
The Post could not independently verify who organized those efforts or whether they were connected to any campaign, political group or voter registration organization. The allegations resemble a prior case reported by the newspaper, in which a Marina Del Rey woman agreed to plead guilty to charges that she paid homeless people on Skid Row to register to vote as part of a long-running illegal petition signature scheme.
At the Midnight Mission, The Post also spoke with Bo Jackson, who is registered to vote but said he did not remember registering and could not name a candidate in the LA mayor’s race. When The Post asked Midnight Mission staff how ballots are handled when they arrive at the shelter, a reporter was removed from the property without receiving an answer.
The review also identified hundreds of voters registered at supportive housing developments and affordable housing projects. Several locations added nearly 200 voters in the final weeks before the registration deadline.
Three addiction treatment and crisis service providers appeared among addresses with significant numbers of registered voters. Records showed more than 80 registered voters across four behavioral health and addiction treatment facilities: Corner of Hope Mental Health Service Center, Volunteers of America Alcohol Services, Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and Homeless Health Care Los Angeles’ Harm Reduction Center.
The Post also found 313 registered voters tied to addresses associated with Los Angeles County social services facilities.
Essayli criticized California’s election system, saying the state has removed basic safeguards used elsewhere.
“Dirty voter rolls, with no voter ID and unregulated ballot harvesting is a open invitation for bad actors to commit fraud,” Essayli said.
He added that if California wants to restore confidence in its elections, state officials should comply with federal law and allow an audit of voter rolls.
Garrett Fahy, a California election law attorney, said the registrations identified by The Post reflect how the state’s system is designed to work.
“The system is not set up to prevent people from voting. It’s to ensure anyone who can register votes,” Fahy said.
He said registrations at shelters, service providers and other nontraditional addresses should be understood in the context of California election law. Local election officials, he said, generally do not independently investigate each registration. Their job is to administer elections under laws and regulations set by lawmakers and the secretary of state.
“This is the system that our representatives have given to us,” Fahy said. “If you don’t like our system, don’t yell at your local elections official. Go yell at Sacramento and go yell at the secretary of state because those are the people who determine the laws that we have.”
Fahy said the registrations reviewed by The Post appear to reflect policy choices made over many years by state lawmakers, rather than actions by local election workers.
“This is how our system works as it was intended to work,” he said.
California law also allows voters to designate another person to return a completed ballot on their behalf.
