Allegations of voter fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral primary election were bolstered by some homeless people on Skid Row claiming they were paid to vote for the leftists in the race.
Republican-leaning Spencer Pratt was shut out of the jungle primary, which allows the top two vote-getters to proceed to the general election.
‘I was just trying to make 5 bucks, you know? But I didn’t do the fraud.’
Some Pratt supporters became suspicious after Pratt initially won second place in the partial results announced on Election Night and then the gap whittled away with each tranche of ballots that were counted.
A pro-Pratt TikTok account posted video of the claims from homeless people recorded in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
“It was like two bucks,” said one unidentified woman who claimed she was paid $2 to vote for Bass.
“Yeah, they come out here all the time,” she added.
The TikTok creator told the New York Post that he was tipped off by a friend who worked in the area and claimed to have seen political volunteers operating in the neighborhood.
One of the men in the video called himself Kevin Shepherd and said he was paid $4 to vote for Bass. He said he negotiated the price up from $2 and that he was also allowed to vote for Raman, but not Pratt.
“They gave you an optional choice,” Shepherd said.
Rene Johnson, 39, claimed she was paid $5 to vote for Bass but was unclear about the documents she signed.
“But, you know, at the time, I didn’t know that that was going on,” she said. “I was just trying to make five bucks, you know? But I didn’t do the fraud.”
However, an investigation into her claims found that there was no vote under her name from Skid Row, but there was one with that name and age in the nearby Inglewood election, which has a mayor separate from that of Los Angeles.
The Post said it was unable to independently verify the claims in the video.
“Everybody said it was normal,” the content creator said to the Post.
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The Justice Dept. said it was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the California elections but noted one claim, that Pratt received no votes in one tranche of ballots, was untrue.
California’s electoral system was widely mocked after results were delayed far past what is typical in other states. Some pointed to the delays as evidence of fraud, but officials have denied the claims.
One report indicated that 185 voters for Raman were registered in a homeless shelter in Venice that had received $600,000 through the efforts of the socialist city councilwoman. Others pointed out that the hundreds of votes in the Skid Row area would not have made much of a difference in the gap between Pratt and Raman.
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