A California woman has pleaded guilty to bribing homeless individuals to register to vote and sign political petitions in Los Angeles’ Skid Row area, federal officials said.
Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, admitted in a plea deal that she worked as a paid petition circulator and targeted homeless people while collecting signatures in Los Angeles.
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Armstrong took voter registration forms with her and paid people between $2 and $3 after they signed petitions she was circulating and then registered to vote, court documents quoted by The Washington Times show.
Prosecutors say Armstrong told those without permanent residences to use one of her past addresses for registration forms.
California votes mostly by mail; therefore, many ballots were sent to that address.
Federal investigators said Armstrong agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of bribing an individual to register to vote.
“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections — even more so when payoffs are involved,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement quoted by The Washington Times.
Authorities said Armstrong had been a signature gatherer for around two decades.
The coordinators of the petitions only paid the circulators for genuine voter registrations, which meant the individuals had to be registered voters in California, the investigators claimed.
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Federal prosecutors did not specify the number of registrations or petition signatures involved in the case.
This comes as November’s midterm elections are just months away.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says Republicans may outspend Democrats this election cycle, a dramatic reversal from past campaigns where Democrats often held the fundraising advantage.
Speaking on Breitbart, Gruters argued Republicans are entering the midterm cycle with significantly stronger financial positioning and unprecedented coordination across the conservative movement.
Host Mike Slater asked Gruters to put the reported $70 million Democrats spent in Virginia’s recent redistricting battle into perspective.
“How much money is that for the parties?” Slater asked.
Gruters responded by painting a bleak financial picture for Democrats.
“The DNC has minus 4 million [dollars], and it wasn’t the DNC that plowed $70 million: It was the collective,” Gruters said.
“So, if you look at the collective on the right, we may have $800 million,” he continued.
“The collective on the left may have $350 million, and when you have the court, there’s gonna be a court case that is ruled on in the next week or two, coordinated campaign limits, which will magnify that, which will allow full coordination and allow the parties to spend at the candidate rate, which is massive for us,” he said.
Gruters said the financial landscape could mark a historic break from previous election cycles.
“When you have that financial advantage, people, you know, people don’t know that the Democrats routinely spend more than us on election cycles, because they have more massive donors and that will write massive checks,” he said.
“But this time, this cycle [we] will either spend a parity or will outspend them, and that’s never happened before,” he added.
According to Gruters, the RNC itself is in far stronger shape than the Democratic National Committee.
He said the RNC currently has “about $125 million” on hand compared to what he described as negative cash reserves at the DNC.
Gruters also pointed to allied Republican organizations as part of a broader coordinated effort.
“Our Republican National Senatorial Committee, let’s say, has $80 million. House committee has $80 million,” he said.
“Then you have conservative groups out there like MAGA Inc. … you got to think about, we are completely united in our efforts to hold the majority,” he added.
Gruters emphasized close coordination with President Donald Trump’s political operation.
“We coordinate everything with the President, James Blair, Susie Wiles, that team, and we are in unison moving forward to make sure that we’re doing exactly what we need to do to win,” he said.
Both parties are gearing up for a fiercely contested midterm cycle.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
