O'Keefe Media Group (OMG) has released what it describes as undercover footage allegedly showing paid activists in Los Angeles, California paying homeless individuals on Skid Row to forge signatures of registered voters on ballot initiative petitions. The footage, released as Part Two of an ongoing investigation, purports to show petitioners providing homeless individuals with printed lists of voter names and addresses, and paying them $2–$3 per forged signature.

According to OMG, the goal of the alleged operation was to ensure forged signatures matched official voter records to pass verification. Founder James O'Keefe stated the activity was observed across multiple city blocks in downtown Los Angeles. In the footage, a petitioner reportedly instructs an undercover journalist posing as a potential participant: 'Your name's Robert,' while directing them to sign another person's name.

OMG identified multiple California statutes potentially violated by the alleged conduct, including Elections Code §18613 (signing another person's name to a petition), Penal Code §470 (forgery), and Elections Code §18601–18602 (paying for petition signatures).

O'Keefe and a colleague subsequently contacted homeowners whose names and addresses allegedly appeared on the petition lists. One homeowner stated he had purchased the property nearly nine years prior and still received election mail for the previous resident. 'I always feel really weird when I get the voting ballot... obviously that's fraudulent,' the homeowner said on camera.

OMG's Part One of the investigation had previously implicated the Weingart Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving homeless individuals in Skid Row. The organization reportedly received $112 million in taxpayer grants in 2022 alone and holds over $800 million in net assets. OMG also reported that several petitioners identified themselves as working for Populus Inc., a political consulting firm. Neither organization has been independently confirmed to have responded to the allegations at time of publication.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, in an interview with O'Keefe, called for freezing funding to organizations involved in the alleged scheme and for criminal prosecutions. 'The entire voting system in California is called into question by this,' Hilton said. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, separately referenced an alleged discrepancy of 45,000 votes in his county from a November 2025 special election on Proposition 50. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an emergency writ with the court of appeals to pause a vote count related to that election; Bianco questioned the motivation publicly on social media.

President Trump shared the OMG report on Truth Social. No California Democratic officials or representatives of the named organizations have been quoted responding to the allegations in the source material.

The allegations in this report originate from O'Keefe Media Group, an organization known for producing partisan undercover investigations. The claims have not been independently verified. No charges had been filed at the time of publication.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/okeefe-catches-skid-row-fraudsters-paying-homeless-people-forge-signatures-ballots