Nine people face felony charges in connection with a fraud scheme in which they offered cash or cigarettes to homeless people on skid row in downtown Los Angeles in exchange for hundreds of fake or forged signatures on ballot petitions and voter registration forms, prosecutors said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors Tuesday announced the charges, which include circulating a petition with false names, voter fraud and registering a nonexistent person during election cycles in 2016 and this year.

The charges come amid a Los Angeles Police Department crackdown this year on suspected election fraud on skid row.

“They paid individuals to sign the names,” said Officer Deon Joseph, the senior lead officer on skid row, told The Times in September. “That’s an assault on our democracy.”

State officials said petition signature scams are not widespread in California, but Joseph said they pop up periodically on skid row. People hired to help qualify initiatives for the ballot are often paid by signature collected, typically $1 to $2, although a recent glut of proposed ballot initiatives has pushed the rate as high as $6 a signature, officials said.

Prosecutors allege Kirkland Kauzava Washington, 38, Harold Bennett, 53, Louis Thomas Wise, 36, Richard Howard, 62, Rose Makeda Sweeney, 42, Christopher Joseph Williams, 59, Jakara Fati Mardis, 35, Norman Hall, 61, and Nickey Demelvin Huntley, 44, solicited hundreds of fake or forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms by offering homeless people a dollar or cigarettes for their participation.

Washington, Howard, Sweeney, Williams and Hall are expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Prosecutors have recommended their bail be set at $25,000 each.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-skid-row-voter-fraud-20181120-story.html