Videos and resident accounts allege homeless people were paid $2 to $5 to vote in Los Angeles mayoral election

A report published Tuesday said social media videos feature homeless residents and other individuals in Los Angeles alleging they were paid cash amounts ranging from about $2 to $5 in exchange for voting in last week’s Los Angeles mayoral election. The allegations were detailed in an article by Zero Hedge, which described multiple purported video accounts from the Skid Row area.

According to Zero Hedge, the videos show several people describing cash payments after being asked to vote for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. The report also said the same videos included claims that payments were connected to voting for Bass ally and city councilwoman Nithya Raman, who appeared on the citywide ballot and was referenced in the accounts.

Zero Hedge did not publish documentary evidence such as payment records, identifiable intermediaries, or verified chain-of-custody for any cash. Instead, the article characterized the material as resident statements appearing on social media and described the payments as small dollar amounts, describing them as “like two bucks” in the article’s framing.

The mayoral contest also included a field of candidates who competed until a late-stage elimination. Zero Hedge referenced that Spencer Pratt was eliminated from the mayoral race, placing the video accounts within the timeline of the runoff-style process used for Los Angeles mayoral elections. The report did not provide additional documentation tying any specific payment to a specific ballot or vote.

The city of Los Angeles and county election authorities administer elections under state law, including requirements around vote handling, voter eligibility, and rules intended to prevent vote buying. The accounts described by Zero Hedge, if they were to be corroborated, would potentially raise questions about whether improper incentives were offered or whether any participants acted to influence votes for named candidates.

No public confirmation was included in the Zero Hedge article from election officials, law enforcement, prosecutors, or the campaigns for Bass or Raman. The report also did not identify who allegedly made the payments, where the transactions occurred, or whether any individuals sought to report the conduct to election administrators before or after Election Day.

If the allegations are taken up by authorities, the next steps would generally include requests for review of available election administration records, witness statements, and any associated video metadata. Because the claims rest on social media accounts in the report, verification would likely hinge on the ability to authenticate the videos, identify the speakers, and connect the described payments to election-related conduct within the applicable time window.