Homeless people in Los Angeles were paid to vote for Karen Bass.

Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Oct 21, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictFalse

Sources: 3 contradict3 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 82%

Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026

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The claim that homeless people in Los Angeles were paid to vote for Karen Bass is contradicted by authoritative checks.

What was said

… That was statistically impossible. So that needs to be investigated. I don't know about the machines per se, but I am concerned about people voting who are not supposed to be voting. We know that there's voter fraud. We saw it in LA. We saw people being paid to vote for Nithiarahman, or being paid, these are homeless people in the street, by the way, being paid to vote for Karen Bass, or whatever. All of that is illegal elections activity that needs to be investigated. Unfortunately, our Attorney General, Rob Bonta, is not investigating those things. …

Ask Dr. Drew · Oct 21, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Contradicts. Lead Stories, citing the LA County Registrar's office, found that the Skid Row woman who said she was paid $5 to vote for Bass could not have voted for Bass because she is registered in Inglewood, and she did not return her mailed primary ballot.[1]

Contradicts. LA Times reporting said election experts found one-off fraud cases, even if true, would not change the outcome, and that 20 Skid Row residents interviewed said they had not heard of anyone offering money to vote for a specific candidate.[3]

Contradicts. LA County election officials responded on X that there was no evidence the woman voted for Bass for $5, and Bass's campaign called the paid-vote idea 'absurd'; a Substack-style electionlaw blog described the homeless voter fraud claims as unfounded.[4]

Context. PolitiFact found anecdotal evidence of fraud and noted that federal prosecutors said they had open election fraud investigations, but it found no details and said such fraud has historically not been enough to change outcomes.[2]

Context. The Yahoo and Daily Signal reports repeat the homeless payment allegations from the original videos without independent verification, so they do not corroborate the claim.[5][6]