The Maryland state prosecutor is investigating allegations that up to 200 of Washington's homeless people were illegally paid $150 and bused to Prince George's County polling places on Election Day to hand out leaflets promoting the Republican candidate for governor.

State election law bars political candidates from paying people to work for them in a partisan manner on the day voters go to the polls. So-called "walk-around money" has been banned since the 1970s.

"We're looking into that allegation as well as others," said the prosecutor, Stephen Montanarelli.

The report comes on the heels of warnings last week to Democrats who had planned to pay $75 and $100 to help get out the vote for their candidates, but were cautioned they could work only in a strictly nonpartisan way.

Yesterday, the campaign of Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. denied any role in handing out money. "We don't know anything about that," said campaign spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver.

Workers said they were promised $100 for a day's work, but were not paid Tuesday night -- and many were left stranded in Maryland when vans that had picked them up before dawn didn't return.

Yesterday, outside the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter on Second Street Northwest, where the workers had been recruited, they lined up for their $100 in cash -- plus a $50 hardship bonus.

The money was being handed out by people from a van who refused to say whether they were working for Ehrlich's campaign.

But Amelia Horton, an intern at the shelter, said the woman handing out the money told her she had no formal affiliation with the campaign but said to keep the payments a secret so she wouldn't get in trouble. She was afraid she would be arrested, Horton said.

Washington police officers were called in to keep the crowd in order, and watched as the money was doled out.

"She told our lieutenant she was there to pay 170 people some money for reportedly working at polling places in Maryland," said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a spokesman for the Washington police, which in the afternoon had six cars and four motorcycles at the scene. An agent with the state prosecutor's office also saw the transactions, several witnesses said.

The workers said they were sent primarily into African-American areas in Prince George's and told to encourage voters to choose Ehrlich for governor so that Maryland could have the first black lieutenant governor in its history in Michael S. Steele.

The hired homeless were instructed to "just tell them we're volunteers, not to tell anyone we're getting paid," said Monsoor Ali, 25, who said he handed out leaflets outside a polling place at Princeton Elementary School in Camp Springs.

Police were also called out in Prince George's on election night after dozens of the same recruits, gathered outside the Democrats for Ehrlich headquarters near New Carrollton, became agitated when they learned they would not be paid as promised. A woman identified by Horton as Shirley Brookins reportedly told the workers she had been unable to cash a $50,000 cashier's check earmarked to pay them.

Brookins of Silver Spring could not be reached last night. She is listed as the officer of several nonprofit corporations based in the district.

Sun staff writer Walter F. Roche Jr. contributed to this article.