Conservative activists charged after undercover Minnesota voting stunt

Conservative activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged with unlawful voting and identity theft after allegedly using false names while testing Minnesota’s voter-registration system during the state’s August primary. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the men went to polling places in Minneapolis wearing costumes and attempted to begin the “vouching” process under the names of registered voters. The process allows an unregistered person without proof of address to register and vote after another voter signs an oath confirming the person’s identity and residence.

According to Moriarty, the activists identified themselves using names of registered voters without those people’s knowledge or permission. Poll workers became suspicious and reported the conduct to election officials, who referred the matter to police. The men stopped before signing the oath required to complete the vouching process.

Moriarty nevertheless said that providing false names and initiating the process justified felony charges. She said the incident demonstrated that Minnesota’s system for identifying and responding to suspected misconduct had worked. Neither man had entered a plea, and court records did not list an attorney for either defendant at the time of the report.

O’Keefe founded Project Veritas before later leaving the organisation and now leads O’Keefe Media Group. The group published video of the encounters and said the activists had created an intentionally extreme scenario to examine how election workers would respond. It said some workers explained how the rules operated, while others became suspicious and alerted colleagues by radio.

The video showed O’Keefe and others using costumes and fake accents associated with Muslim clothing and speech. O’Keefe referred to Higby, whose face was covered, as his wife while speaking with poll workers. Prosecutors said the conduct involved the identities of registered voters, while the activists characterised it as an investigation into vulnerabilities in the law.

Minnesota permits a registered voter in a precinct to vouch for another person by signing an oath about the person’s identity and residence. The person being vouched for must also swear to their identity and eligibility and provide a Minnesota identification number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. The procedure is relatively uncommon: fewer than 0.6 percent of votes in the November 2024 election used it, according to the state secretary of state’s office.

David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research said he knew of no evidence that vouching had enabled organised or widespread fraud. He said impersonating another voter was a serious crime and noted that people advancing voter-fraud claims had increasingly engaged in questionable conduct themselves. The charges will now test whether the alleged undercover operation crossed Minnesota’s criminal threshold, while the defendants retain the opportunity to respond in court.