The FBI has arrested a California man, James Brass, along with two alleged accomplices, over a scheme in which homeless people on Los Angeles' Skid Row were allegedly paid to sign ballot petitions using the stolen identities of registered voters. The case, brought by federal prosecutors in the Central District of California, forms part of a wider crackdown on alleged election fraud and is significant because it involves the direct forgery of voter signatures used to try to qualify local ballot initiatives.

Brass, 47, was detained in Victorville, while co-defendants Courtney Price, 49, and Jateisha Herron, 33, face related charges of conspiracy to commit identity fraud, with Brass and Price also charged with identity fraud itself. Prosecutors allege that between February and August, the trio obtained voters' identities from a database, paid homeless individuals to sign petitions in those voters' names, and then falsely declared they had personally witnessed genuine signatures; Brass allegedly received $41,600 from one petition management company. FBI Director Kash Patel and a senior US attorney said the case underscores the bureau's commitment to election security, and each defendant faces up to five years in prison per count if convicted.