California election officials said they are investigating whether signature collectors in San Francisco illegally offered money to people to sign ballot petitions using false names.
The probe follows a video posted Monday on X that shows a sign reading “Sign petition for $5” and a line of people waiting along a sidewalk outside where the petition effort was being conducted. In the video, a woman sitting at a folding table appears to direct what name and address to use to fill out the petition, according to the account described by the California secretary of state’s office.
In a statement Friday, the secretary of state’s office said it was “aware of, and investigating, the matter.” The investigation focuses on allegations that the signature-gathering process included instructions to use names and addresses that did not match real identities, which would call petition validity into question during later review.
Election law in California allows paid workers to help gather signatures for ballot initiatives, but the secretary of state’s office said offering gifts or money in exchange for signatures is illegal under state election law. The office said signatures on petitions are reviewed and verified against voter registration records and that signatures that do not match will not be counted.
A key question now is whether the conduct shown in the video crossed the legal line. The video, described in the investigation report, depicts at least one worker urging petition signers to complete the paperwork after being asked what the petitions were for, with the woman responding, “Just sign it.”
The video also appeared to include petitions tied to a tech-backed ballot measure to fight a proposed tax on billionaires. That effort is funded by Building a Better California, a committee started by wealthy business leaders including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who gave $20 million, according to the Associated Press report.
Building a Better California spokesperson Molly Weedn said the signature collectors seen in the video were not directly working for the campaign and that the campaign was cooperating with authorities to reject petitions collected with falsified information. Weedn also said in a statement, “Under no circumstance do we tolerate this type of activity,” adding that the campaign took immediate action and attorneys reported to authorities after the video surfaced.
Weedn said the campaign notified election officials as soon as the video appeared. Another Building a Better California-funded ballot petition, aimed at prohibiting a new tax on retirement savings, also appeared in the video, the report said.
In a separate statement, spokesperson Nathan Click said the campaign “does not tolerate fraudulent activity in any signature-gathering process.” Click said that once the campaign became aware of the activities in question, it demanded its signature-gathering firm identify the petition circulator and reject any and all petitions submitted by that circulator.
California’s secretary of state’s office also said it is a crime to circulate, sign and/or file with an election official any initiative petition that is known to include forged names. The report said there were multiple petitions on the table and that it was unclear whether they were for additional campaigns beyond the ones the campaign identified.