A woman from Marina del Rey, California, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of “paying individuals, including homeless people, to register to vote using false or vague addresses, a scheme prosecutors say spanned approximately 20 years,” reports Megan Barth of the California Globe. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, is accused of paying individuals “small amounts of cash, cigarettes, or other items to complete voter registration forms, often using her former address or nonspecific locations.” “Anika,” as Armstrong is also known, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $10,000 fine.

“The case originated from undercover videos released by James O’Keefe and the O’Keefe Media Group,” Barth notes. “It was citizen journalism—not the Secretary of State, county Registrar of Voters, congressional representatives, city officials, or nearby ‘nonprofits’ that exposed the long-running operation.” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was all over it.

“False registrations undermine Americans’ faith in elections—even more so when payoffs are involved,” said Dhillon in a statement. “This Justice Department is committed to ensuring that all U.S. elections are fair and free from illegal meddling—so that all Americans can accept the results with confidence.” As the case moves forward, Anika’s dynamic is evident in many other examples of California’s institutionalized voter fraud.

Persons illegally present in the United States are not “undocumented” as so many people are pleased to describe them. Rather, they rely on bogus documents, including Social Security numbers stolen from deceased persons, an old trick dramatized in the 1973 film, The Day of the Jackal. According to federal law, falsely documented illegals are not eligible to vote, but California registers them to vote anyway because those over 18 are automatically registered upon getting a driver’s license.

California also gives falsely documented illegals in-state college tuition, welfare benefits, and even appointments to state government positions. California protects illegals from federal authorities through the state’s sanctuary law, authored by California state Sen. Kevin de Leon. The Los Angeles Democrat grew up “on both sides of the border” and claims his father was a Chinese cook born in Guatemala. Illegals also get government-paid healthcare, and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently added a new wrinkle.

California is now partnering with a nonprofit called Baby2Baby to launch a “first-in-the-nation program to provide free diapers to all new babies born in California.” This comes in an election year and at a time when birthright citizenship is being challenged by the Trump administration. So, if anybody believes the “free” nappies are a bribe to illegals and a boost for the birth-tourism industry, it would be hard to blame them. But it also happens that this Baby2Baby charity has close ties to the Newsom household.

In any event, falsely documented illegals are a pampered, protected class in California. Legitimate citizens and legal immigrants have a right to wonder just how many illegals live in California. Xavier Becerra, now a candidate for governor, gave a hint when he was state attorney general.

Receiving welfare benefits can disqualify even a legal green card holder from citizenship. When Becerra filed a lawsuit against the “public charge” rule, he displayed a sign reading “California is home to over 10 million immigrants,” code for illegals, which raised an issue.

For years, the Pew Research Center pegged the total number in the country at 11 million. That is now a ballpark figure for the number of illegals in California alone. According to a 2018 study by scholars at MIT and Yale, the nationwide total exceeds 22 million. The Biden administration brought in more than 10 million illegals, approximately the population of Portugal, with no background checks or health records. These illegals were brought in to extend to the rest of the country the “benefits” California gets from its imported electorate.

As California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla promoted the “motor voter” plan that registers illegals to vote. Gov. Newsom appointed Padilla to replace Kamala Harris, and the “Senator Nobody Voted For” now wants the Treasury Department to register illegals to vote when they get their taxes done—at taxpayer expense, of course.

Voters in the rest of the country might want to review some of California’s greatest electoral hits. In the 2010 race for state attorney general, Kamala Harris was losing on election night, but three weeks later, “provisional ballots” gave her the win by less than one percent. In 2021, Newsom faced a recall due to public outrage over California’s oppressive COVID regime. Yet he prevailed against that recall by 61.9 percent, the identical percentage of his win in 2018. As the governor explained, the people had only said “yes to science,” “yes to vaccines,” and so forth—in other words, the same rigid policies that launched the recall in the first place.

That recall election would be a fine candidate for an independent investigation and audit. In the meantime, MIT, Caltech, and Las Vegas might calculate the odds of such an outcome.

A measure to require voter ID is on the November ballot in California, but no ID will be required on election day 2026. With voter fraud firmly institutionalized, California Democrats remain in a triumphal mood. Xavier Becerra was once on Hillary Clinton’s short list as a running mate, but there’s more to Becerra that people should know.

In Congress, Becerra was embroiled in the scandal surrounding IT man Imran Awan, who strip-mined data from the computers of Democrats on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees.

So far, that hasn’t become an issue in the governor’s race. In California, what goes around comes around. As Trump says, we’ll have to see what happens.