Masked Men in San Francisco Offer Cash for Signatures on Ballot Initiatives
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- In San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, some individuals have been paid cash and given food in exchange for signatures to help ballot initiatives qualify, a shift from the area's usual drug trade.
- Paid petitioners can earn up to $15 per signature during California’s ballot initiative season, driven by competitive funding from billionaire-backed campaigns, particularly around a proposed billionaires’ tax.
- While paying petitioners is legal, paying signatories is illegal, and election officials are tasked with rejecting forged or invalid signatures.
- Many signatories, including homeless individuals, often sign petitions primarily for immediate cash or food, sometimes without fully understanding or remembering the initiative’s purpose.
