Feds launch massive criminal voter fraud surge in California crackdown as eight other states targeted

Federal officials are set to launch a massive criminal investigation into voter fraud in California as part of a multi-state effort to clean up the nation’s elections.

Sources with knowledge of the endeavor said the Golden State is among eight states targeted in the sweeping operation to be executed by Homeland Security Investigations starting next week.

Other states slated for investigations include New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Georgia, Washington, Nevada, Wisconsin and Missouri.

President Donald Trump has vowed to tackle election fraud, with his focus leading Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and federal prosecutors to make it a priority.

With that in mind, HSI is beginning a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review,” according to an internal memo that was described to the California Post.

The huge undertaking comes as top Los Angeles federal prosecutor Bill Essayli and local Homeland Security investigators have ramped up their own collaborative efforts to fight wrongdoing in elections.

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Homeland Security agents with Essayli on Friday arrested a Honduran agitator on charges of illegally registering to vote as part of a crackdown on suspected election fraud.

Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores, 30, who was busted earlier this year at an anti-ICE protest in Southern California, is accused of two felonies related to his false claims of US citizenship to complete voter registration forms, prosecutors say.

The Ventura County arrest of Rivera Flores was just the tip of the iceberg, with “many more” busts coming soon, said Essayli.

“The crackdown has already begun,” he said.

Essayli’s office is chasing a slew of cases related to voting crimes, with some already in the bag.

A Marina Del Rey woman snared by his office earlier this year was set to be sentenced Monday after she pled guilty to bombshell charges that she paid homeless people on Skid Row to register to vote — as part of a 20-year scheme tied to illegal petition signature collection.

Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, even let homeless people use her own address to register for elections— meaning mail-in ballots could be sent to her home. In May she took a plea deal for one felony count of paying another person to register to vote in a federal election.  

Armstrong faces up to five years in prison but will probably get a lighter punishment because of her plea deal.

Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a separate probe into voter fraud in Skid Row that also focuses on alleged payments made to homeless people.

The Post spotted multiple agents interviewing homeless in downtown LA’s worst neighborhood in June, after claims surfaced that they’d been bribed with cash to sign multiple registration forms and forge signatures.

About 20 plainclothes agents swooped in on the notoriously blighted area and questioned Skid Row residents, asking them if they were paid to vote or were aware of others who were approached with the offer.

It marked a major escalation in the feds’ probe of voting in Los Angeles, with FBI Director Kash Patel applauding the action.

“Securing our elections is of the upmost priority for this FBI!” he wrote on X. “If you mess with our elections we will find you!”

The effort came a day after the LA City Council voted to move forward with a controversial proposal introduced by a socialist councilmembers to allow immigrant noncitizens vote in city and school board elections.

During California’s drawn-out primaries that month, Assistant US Attorney Robert Renner toured LA County’s ballot processing facility, just one day after President Trump said the state’s voting process was “under investigation” by the US Attorney’s Office.

When The Post visited the voting office, rows of workstations sat empty, even as the public erupted with fury over the glacial pace of vote counting.

Essayli said that California’s liberal voter registration rules invite fraud by allowing people to register to vote with no ID and to cast ballots with unofficial identification such as gym identification cards, insurance cards and utility bills.

Because the state does not share its voter rolls with the federal government, authorities are unable to assess whether those who register are actually US citizens, Essayli said. People who want to vote in California can simply register online.

In an attempt to force California and other states to share voter rolls, President Trump this month moved to restrict mail-in ballots in states that refuse to submit voter information into an online portal run by the US Postal Service.

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily prohibited the Postal Service from carrying out the plan, saying it appeared to overstep the agency’s legal mandate and could spark chaos by changing rules fewer than 70 days before November elections.

With those elections coming up soon, federal law enforcement is expected to continue its focus on the issue.

“There is going to be a lot of arrests happening in this space,” said Essayli.