Thousands of homeless people in Los Angeles were registered to vote at shelters and service centers that don't actually house them — and the progressive candidate who just leapfrogged Spencer Pratt in the mayoral race happens to have funded one of the worst offenders with a $600,000 taxpayer grant. Nothing suspicious here, folks.
But sure, tell us again how "election integrity" concerns are just right-wing conspiracy theories. We'll wait.
A review of LA County voting records uncovered roughly 7,600 registered voters tied to homeless shelters, supportive housing developments, and service providers across the city, according to the New York Post. The problem? Many of these locations don't have the capacity — or in some cases, any beds at all — to house the people supposedly living there.
The most jaw-dropping example is the Midnight Mission in Skid Row. Voting records show 1,160 registrations at that address. The facility's own website says it has beds for 84 men and 36 women. That's 120 beds and 1,160 "residents." Even by LA math, that doesn't add up.
Then there's St. Joseph Center in Venice — a drop-in service center, not a residential shelter — where 185 registered voters are tied to the address. Nobody sleeps there. It's a place you walk in, get a sandwich, and walk out. But apparently 185 people call it home on election day.
Here's where it gets really interesting. City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chaired the Los Angeles City Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee, awarded St. Joseph Center a $600,000 taxpayer-funded grant. The same Raman who just pulled off one of the most dramatic come-from-behind surges in LA political history.
On election night, June 2, Spencer Pratt — yes, that Spencer Pratt — held a comfortable lead for the second runoff spot against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. Then the late ballots started rolling in. And rolling. And rolling.
As of Monday's latest count, Raman sits at 229,576 votes — 28.56% — while Pratt has fallen to 207,757 at 25.83%. That's a 43,000-vote swing since election night. Raman gained five full percentage points on Pratt in the days after the polls closed. Karen Bass, the incumbent, cruised to first place with 34.32% and had long secured her November runoff spot.
Forty-three thousand votes materialized out of thin air. From a candidate connected to shelters where phantom voters are registered. In a city where the voter rolls are dirtier than a Skid Row sidewalk.
US Attorney Bill Essayli has taken notice. He announced he will investigate the concerns and "follow the evidence" to determine whether laws were broken. Good. Because when 1,160 people are registered at a mission with 120 beds, somebody has some explaining to do.
The left will scream that questioning any of this is "voter suppression." They'll say homeless people have every right to vote — and they do. Nobody's arguing that. What we're arguing is that you can't register a thousand people at an address where a hundred people sleep and pretend that's legitimate. That's not enfranchisement. That's manufacturing a voter base.
Nithya Raman is a progressive's progressive — the kind of politician who thinks the solution to every problem is more government money funneled through the right nonprofits. She sat on the committee that controls homeless funding. She directed taxpayer dollars to a facility that now has 185 ghost voters on its rolls. And then she magically surged past her opponent on the strength of late-arriving ballots.
Coincidence? In any other city, maybe. In Los Angeles? Please.
Bill Essayli better follow that evidence fast — because in LA, evidence has a funny way of disappearing right around election certification time.