Hundreds of ballots were discovered piled in an open hallway at The Midnight Mission, a downtown Los Angeles homeless shelter on Skid Row where 1,160 voters are registered, according to a California Post investigation.
The Post authenticated a photo of the ballots and independently confirmed the scene during a visit to the shelter on October 13. The Midnight Mission, located at 601 South San Pedro Street, offers meals and mail services to homeless residents and handles large volumes of mail for them.
The find comes four months after the California Post exposed 7,600 voter registrations linked to homeless shelters and service providers across Los Angeles, some of which don’t offer a single bed.
The Midnight Mission says the ballots should never have been sitting out in the open. The organization’s chief communications officer, Georgia Hawley, told The Post that ballots are supposed to be kept locked up until they reach their intended recipients.
“Our standard procedure is to secure election ballots behind locked doors until they are distributed to their intended recipients,” Hawley said. “I personally confirmed that ballots were being stored securely when I visited our mail center.”
Hawley attributed the issue to limited mailroom space, which requires deliveries to be received, sorted and distributed throughout the day.
The Post asked U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli whether federal authorities were investigating election ballots on Skid Row. Essayli confirmed an investigation is underway but declined to comment specifically on The Midnight Mission.
“Treating ballots like junk mail”
Republican congressional candidate Scott Meyers, an attorney running in California’s 30th Congressional District, said the mishandling goes beyond any single shelter and implicated both the U.S. Postal Service and the organizations responsible for distributing ballots.
“We’re treating ballots like junk mail,” Meyers said.
Meyers pointed to photographs of ballots left unattended in apartment building lobbies and placed the blame on the Postal Service for failing to safeguard them.
“These are pieces of gold. This is our democracy,” he said.
Nico Ruderman, a Venice Neighborhood Council member and former candidate for public office who has repeatedly observed election procedures at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office, called the discovery disappointing but unsurprising.
“Even if there is no fraud, there is a perception,” Ruderman told The Post. “If people don’t trust their elections, they’re not going to vote.”
Ruderman is calling for a ballot initiative to overhaul California’s election laws, arguing that public confidence matters even where wrongdoing hasn’t been proven.
“We need massive election reform, even if there is nothing nefarious going on,” he said. “Election reform eliminates doubts.”
Pattern of registrations at shelters
The discovery follows The Post’s June investigation into thousands of voter registrations tied to homeless shelters and service providers across Los Angeles, including drop-in centers offering services but no overnight beds. At St. Joseph Center in Venice, The Post identified 185 registered voters tied to a facility with no beds at all.
Local resident Susan Collins accused political activists of exploiting homeless voters through California’s ballot collection laws.
“For over a decade I’ve been saying, ballot harvesting has been abused, in particular by the DSA,” Collins said, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America.
California law allows voters to authorize another person to return their completed mail ballots, provided state election rules are followed. Election law attorney Garrett Fahy has previously told The Post that allowing homeless residents to register using shelters and other nontraditional addresses reflects the state’s effort to protect voting access.
“The system is not set up to prevent people from voting. It’s to ensure anyone who can register votes,” Fahy said.
