Federal Prosecutors Charge California Woman With Paying Homeless People on Skid Row to Register to Vote

Federal prosecutors in California have charged a Marina del Rey woman with paying homeless people on Los Angeles’ Skid Row to register to vote.

Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, a longtime ballot-initiative petition circulator also known as “Anika,” has agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of paying another person to register to vote.

She is expected to formally enter that plea in the coming weeks and faces up to five years in federal prison.

According to the Department of Justice, this was not a vague paperwork dispute.

The Department of Justice said Armstrong worked for roughly 20 years as a petition circulator, collecting voter signatures on petitions used to qualify initiatives, referendums, and recalls for California ballots. She was paid by coordinators for signatures tied to registered voters, so the incentive was obvious: get people registered, then get their petition signatures.

DOJ said Armstrong drove around Los Angeles looking for registered voters, but Skid Row gave her