Conservative activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged with unlawful voting and identity theft after allegedly using the names of registered voters at polling stations during Minnesota’s primary election.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the men wore costumes and began the state’s “vouching” process at polling places in Minneapolis on 11 August. Their encounters with election workers were recorded for a video intended to highlight what they said were weaknesses in Minnesota’s voting laws.
O’Keefe, 42, of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Higby, 26, of Covington, Washington, were reported to authorities after poll workers became suspicious of their behaviour. Moriarty said both men used the names of registered voters in the precincts without those voters’ knowledge or permission.
“Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and their protection is one of our highest priorities,” Moriarty said.
She added that the case showed “the system for identifying misconduct and responding to it functioned well during the primary”.
Minnesota vouching process
Minnesota allows a registered voter to vouch for another person who does not have proof of their current address. The voter providing the declaration must sign an oath confirming the other person’s identity and residence in the precinct.
The person being vouched for must also provide either a Minnesota driving licence or identification card number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number. The process is rarely used, although it is most common among older people who have not updated the address on their driving licence because they no longer drive.
Fewer than 0.6% of votes cast in Minnesota’s November 2024 election used the process, according to the state Secretary of State’s office.
Moriarty said O’Keefe and Higby stopped before signing the required oath, but alleged that giving false names and initiating the process was sufficient to support the felony charges.
In a video and written statement released on Wednesday evening, O’Keefe said the pair had been acting as investigative journalists and had never intended to complete the process. He said they were careful to use the phrase “the name is” rather than “my name is” when speaking to election workers.
“In our report, we clearly stopped and walked out of the polling places to avoid even touching a voting ballot,” O’Keefe wrote.
He added: “We didn’t apply for a ballot; we were there talking to election clerks, posing hypotheticals and getting answers so that Americans could know what was happening in the elections.”
The video, posted on YouTube on 13 August, showed O’Keefe, Higby and others wearing costumes resembling clothing worn by some Muslims and using fake accents while asking about the vouching rules at several Minneapolis voting sites. Higby’s face was covered, and O’Keefe referred to him as his wife.
O’Keefe Media Group said the team had presented “an intentionally extreme scenario to expose what they see as the lunacy of the state’s ‘vouching’ system”. It said some election workers explained how the group could proceed, while others became suspicious and raised concerns over their radios.
David Becker, a former Justice Department official and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he was unaware of examples of the vouching system leading to organised or widespread fraud.
“Impersonating another voter is a very serious crime,” Becker said.
O’Keefe founded Project Veritas and was later removed as its leader. Higby did not immediately respond to a request for comment and court records did not list a lawyer for him. Neither man has had the opportunity to enter a plea.
