Los Angeles Woman Charged With Paying Homeless People to Register to Vote

A Southern California woman has admitted to paying homeless people living in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles to register to vote, federal prosecutors announced May 18. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, from the upscale coastal enclave of Marina del Ray, will plead guilty to one felony count of paying another person to register to vote, a federal charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Under the plea agreement, Armstrong admitted to working as a paid “petition circulator” for about 20 years to collect voter signatures on official petitions, referendums, and recalls for state ballots. Around 2025, she began offering payment to homeless people on Skid Row to maximize her pay for signatures, according to prosecutors....