A local content creator filmed a group of signature collectors on SF’s Sixth Street paying dozens of people $5 a pop to sign petitions for three billionaire-backed campaigns under names of voters outside SF, and the campaigns blame an outside firm.

As Sacramento's KCRA first reported, the California Secretary of State’s office is investigating possible ballot initiative petition fraud in San Francisco after local content creator JJ Smith posted a video online appearing to show paid signature collectors offering $5 to people on Sixth Street to sign multiple petitions using other people’s voter registration information from cities outside the Bay Area.

“Seems kind of suspicious to me,” Smith wrote in the caption accompanying the video. “Why not sign your own name and you can hear people doing it actually twice.”

In an interview, Smith told KCRA the signature collectors neglected to give explanations about the petitions, and they didn’t ask for identification from the hundreds of signers who passed through. He told KCRA many appeared to be “down on their luck.” He said he watched the group for hours Monday and saw them four days earlier as well.

The video shows dozens of people lining up to sign petitions tied to three campaigns, as KCRA reports. Two are backed by billionaire-funded groups Building a Better California and Californians for a More Transparent and Effective Government, which are pushing anti-tax measures aimed at blocking a proposed billionaire’s tax. The third campaign supports the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act of 2026.

In the video, Smith approaches someone waiting in the line, “Hey, what’s the line for?”

The man says they’re paying people $5 to sign a petition. JJ steps up to the table and films the person collecting signatures for multiple petitions.

“So, what is it?” he asks the petitioner.

“Just sign it,” she responds. The petitioner then hands a petition to someone off camera, telling them, “First name is going to be Carol. Last name, Sanderson. This is the address, right here. City, Avila Beach.”

The petitions are tied to billionaire-backed campaigns, including Building a Better California and Californians for a More Transparent and Effective Government, which are promoting a series of anti-tax measures aimed at blocking a proposed billionaire’s tax, and Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act of 2026, a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar new taxes on certain assets and financial holdings, per KCRA.

The campaigns have all blamed the incident on an outside signature-gathering firm.

Smith told KCRA he was contacted Tuesday by the secretary of state's chief investigator, which is asking those with information on the incident to contact its office.

As the Chronicle reports, in California, signature collectors are commonly paid per signature, with varying rates. Signature for measures opposing the proposed billionaire tax are reportedly worth about $15 per signature, as the San Francisco Standard reported last week.

"Our campaign is absolutely incensed and under no circumstance do we tolerate this type of activity in the signature gathering process," said Molly Weedn, Californians for a More Transparent and Effective Government.

"We do not tolerate this or any type of fraudulent activity in the signature-gathering process," said Abby Lunardi, Building a Better California.

"We are requiring the signature-gathering firm to ensure that all protocols are strictly enforced. said Nathan Click, a spokesman for the Retirement and Personal Savings Protection Act. “Our attorneys are also alerting the appropriate authorities.”

The LA Times spoke to political scientist Eric Schickler of UC Berkeley who explained the state’s initiative system creates incentives for campaigns to rely on paid signature gatherers because of the high number of signatures required to qualify measures for the ballot.

Schickler said this can create a disconnect between initiative sponsors and the people collecting signatures, who are often paid based on volume, as the LA Times reports. Most campaigns rely on professional signature-gathering firms to meet the scale of the task, though he noted that cases where the process becomes corrupt are relatively uncommon.

“You end up with an agency problem where there’s a disconnect between the people sponsoring the initiatives and the people gathering the signatures,” Schickler told the LA Times. “The people collecting signatures are often paid to gather as many as possible.”

As the Chronicle reports, similar schemes have surfaced in California before. Between 2016 and 2018, signature gatherers on Los Angeles’ Skid Row allegedly paid homeless people with cash and cigarettes to sign petitions using fake names, leading to felony election fraud charges against at least nine people.

In Pacifica, prosecutors filed 21 felony charges against two circulators hired for a referendum campaign backed by the California Apartment Association, alleging they forged at least 20 voter signatures and addresses, per the Chronicle.

In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have banned paying circulators per signature, saying the practice remains one of the most economical ways to qualify initiatives for the ballot, as the Chronicle reports.

"Under California law, it is illegal to give money or other valuable consideration to another in exchange for their signature on an initiative petition," a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office said in a statement Tuesday. "It is also a crime to circulate, sign and/or file those signed petitions with an election official any initiative petition that is known to include forged names. In California, the initiative process is an important part of our democracy and those who abuse our system will be held to accountable."

Image: JJ Smith