Voter registrations at former California shelter address do not prove fraud

"No home, no mailboxes. Yet TWENTY SIX 'people' are casting ballots here," claims the caption of a video posted to Instagram on January 16, 2026.

"Straight-up voter fraud out in the open," Johnson, who AFP has previously fact-checked, continues. "This is why California desperately needs Voter ID - NOW."

He posted the same short video showing an apparently empty lot located at 100 Sunset Avenue in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice to his millions of followers on YouTube, Facebook and X.

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken January 22, 2026

Additional accounts amplified the clip across platforms in posts calling out California Governor Gavin Newsom. 

In November 2025, California held a special referendum and voters approved a new temporary electoral map drawn by state Democrats in a response to redistricting efforts in Texas that favored Republican candidates. Newsom campaigned for the changes and has relentlessly trolled US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, making him a popular foil for content creators like Johnson.

But there is no "evidence of voter fraud," in relation to the voters registered at 100 Sunset Avenue, Michael Sanchez, the communications manager for the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, told AFP (archived here).

The site was "associated with a shelter or transitional housing," he said in a January 22 email, which is confirmed by publicly available city records (archived here).

From February 2020, 100 Sunset was the location of an emergency shelter known as a Bridge Home which housed more than 150 people (archived here).

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's website says eligible Californians can register to vote provided they have a place where they can receive mail and can be properly assigned to a voting precinct (archived here). 

"Under California law, eligible voters experiencing homelessness may register using a shelter as their physical location for voting," Sanchez said (archived here).

Local media reported that the shelter closed on December 31, 2024, with the owner of the property wanting it vacated for development in 2025 (archived here and here), thus accounting for why Johnson found the lot cleared at the start of 2026.

Under California law, a person can remain registered at the last address where they resided until they gain a new domicile, at which time they should update their voter registration information (archived here).

Sanchez said that as of January 20 there were 23 active voter records associated with the 100 Sunset address, "with a handful showing voting history." He said if any of those voters had also used the shelter as a mailing address and voting materials sent there were returned undeliverable, it would trigger protocols to update the voter rolls (archived here). 

He also confirmed that any ballots cast by voters associated with that address would be subject to the "same verification and security as all ballots, including signature verification" (archived here).

The Secretary of State's office works with local registrars to continuously update voter rolls to ensure only eligible individuals are casting ballots, as mandated by the National Voter Registration Act (archived here and here).

Johnson's claim was also debunked by Politifact.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation about US politics here.