State investigates alleged paid petition signatures in San Francisco Tenderloin

Masked men, a folding table and five-dollar bills turned a Tenderloin sidewalk into a test of California’s election rules. On Leavenworth Street, three men in ski masks were seen handing out cash and pizza slices to people who signed ballot petitions, a scene that put the city’s most vulnerable residents at the center of a state investigation.

California election officials said they were reviewing video that showed petition collectors in San Francisco allegedly offering money for signatures and, in some cases, telling signers to use names and addresses from voter-registration lists. The Secretary of State’s office said petition signatures are checked against voter-registration records, and invalid matches are not counted. State law also bars offering money or gifts for ballot-measure signatures.

The episode landed in the Tenderloin, where people experiencing homelessness and addiction were sitting nearby, some with drug paraphernalia in hand, while the petition drive unfolded. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the neighborhood, called the conduct disheartening and said rogue operators were preying on some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

The petition sheets were tied to a measure called the Transparency Act of 2026, which would require regular audits of programs funded by new special state taxes. A Politico-cited internal poll found 74% support for the measure’s two planks, a figure that helps explain why signature-gathering has become a costly and competitive industry in California’s tax fights.

The larger battle includes the statewide billionaire-tax campaign backed by SEIU-UHW under the Save California Health Care and Public Education banner. That effort had collected at least 25% of the 874,641 signatures needed to qualify for the 2026 ballot, and its proposal would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ net wealth. Most of the revenue would go to health care, with smaller shares for education and food assistance.

The countercampaign has drawn immense money of its own. Building a Better California had received at least $35 million from Bay Area billionaires, including Sergey Brin and Michael Moritz, underscoring how much capital now flows into signature drives before voters ever see a ballot.

San Luis Obispo County election officials said they saw the video and alerted the state, which opened an investigation. The San Francisco Department of Elections and the Secretary of State now face a familiar but unsettling question: how many signatures gathered on city sidewalks will survive verification, and how many will be thrown out as invalid before the measures reach voters.