LA woman admits illegal vote sign up scheme — but escapes 5 year prison sentence in abysmal court display
A Marina Del Rey woman earned a slap on the wrist after she pled guilty to bombshell charges that she paid homeless people on Skid Row to register to vote in a 20-year scheme tied to illegal petition signature collection.
Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, also known as “Anika,” even let homeless people use her own address to register to vote — meaning mail-in ballots could be sent to her home, a plea agreement obtained by the California Post states.
Armstrong in May took a plea deal for one felony count of paying another person to register to vote in a federal election. On Monday she was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to perform 120 hours of community service by U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi.
Armstrong faced up to five years in prison for the despicable crime. She likely got a lighter sentence because she cooperated with prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Armstrong targeted Skid Row because of its desperate large homeless population in a relatively small area who would easily accept the $2 or $3 offer she made to sign the petition.
She worked as a petition collector for various vendors and individuals known as “coordinators,” who have not been named by prosecutors. The vendors would then pay Armstrong a set amount for each registered voters’ signature.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon shamed Armstrong in a statement on the case.
“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections – even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Dhillon. “This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling – so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence.”
Armstrong’s sentencing came as federal authorities ramped up their investigation and prosecution of voter fraud in California and elsewhere.
Officials are set to launch a massive criminal investigation into voter fraud in California as part of a multi-state effort to clean up the nation’s elections beginning next week.
Sources with knowledge of the endeavor said eight other states are targeted in the sweeping operation to be executed by Homeland Security Investigations, including New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Georgia, Washington, Nevada, Wisconsin and Missouri.
HSI’s effort will be a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review,” according to an internal memo that was explained to the California Post.
The huge undertaking comes as top Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli and local Homeland Security investigators have escalated their own collaborative efforts to fight election fraud.
Homeland Security agents with Essayli on Friday arrested a Honduran agitator on charges of illegally registering to vote as part of a crackdown on suspected election fraud.
Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores, 30, who was busted earlier this year at an anti-ICE protest in Southern California, is accused of two felonies related to his false claims of US citizenship to complete voter registration forms, prosecutors say.
The Ventura County arrest of Rivera Flores was just the tip of the iceberg, with “many more” busts coming soon, said Essayli.
“The crackdown has already begun,” he said.
Essayli’s office is chasing a flood of cases related to voting crimes, including a separate Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into voter fraud in Skid Row that also focuses on alleged payments made to homeless people.
The California Post spotted about 20 agents interviewing homeless in downtown LA’s worst neighborhood in June, after claims surfaced that they’d been bribed with cash to sign multiple registration forms and forge signatures.
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