Hundreds of Live Ballots Were Left Piled in an Open Hallway at a Skid Row Shelter, Feds Confirm Investigation
Hundreds of election ballots were found piled in an open hallway at The Midnight Mission, a downtown Los Angeles homeless shelter on Skid Row that public records list as having 1,160 registered voters.
Reporters at the New York Post photographed the ballots and confirmed they were legitimate.
The shelter provides meals and mail services to residents.
Georgia Hawley, the organization’s chief communications officer, told the Post that standard procedure is to keep election ballots locked until they reach intended recipients and that she had personally confirmed secure storage during a visit to the mail center.
The image and on-site confirmation showed the ballots left exposed in a common area rather than behind locked doors.
The latest incident follows a June Post report that identified roughly 7,600 voter registrations tied to Los Angeles homeless shelters and service providers across the city, including facilities that offer no overnight beds.
The Midnight Mission accounted for the largest concentration in that earlier review.
Republican congressional candidate Scott Meyers told The Post that the open storage is treating ballots like junk mail.
“We’re treating ballots like junk mail,” Meyers said. “These are pieces of gold. This is our democracy.”
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed to the paper that federal authorities are investigating the ballots on Skid Row but declined to discuss The Midnight Mission specifically.