Right-wing activist James O’Keefe and fellow influencer Cam Higby have been charged with felony unlawful voting and identity theft after they allegedly used real voters’ names at Minnesota polling places during the state’s August primary while wearing disguises and filming with concealed cameras.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced the charges Wednesday, less than a week before the midterm elections. The two men have not been arrested but will be issued summonses to appear in Minnesota court.
“Elections are the bedrock of democracy and their protection is one of our highest priorities,” Moriarty said in a statement. “Individuals engaging in unlawful conduct related to our elections will be held accountable.”
The Stunt
On August 11, primary day, O’Keefe and Higby donned what O’Keefe described on X as “traditional Muslim attire” and spoke in fake accents at polling places. They were attempting to test Minnesota’s “vouching” process, which allows a registered voter in a precinct to vouch that another person lives where they say they live.
According to the criminal complaints, the two men attempted to register to vote by claiming the names of real voters — some alive and some deceased. They stopped when told they would have to sign oaths to vouch for someone else’s residence and did not actually cast votes.
“You cannot give somebody else’s name and misrepresent yourself,” Moriarty said. “Whether or not they intended to vote is irrelevant.”
The Vouching Process
Moriarty noted that the vouching process is used in rare instances, accounting for just 0.6 percent of votes cast in the state in the 2024 election. “It is primarily used — and this is understandable — by senior citizens who are living in a place they just haven’t updated their license because maybe they don’t drive anymore,” she said.
She pointed to felony penalties for improperly signing the oath as a “strong deterrent for people not to misuse the vouching process.” “There are safeguards here,” she said. “If you sign that oath and you are lying about it or misrepresenting it, it is a felony.”
Moriarty emphasized that the charges were not related to the men’s costumes or political motivations. “None of that played a role,” she said. “The fundamental issue here is you cannot go into a polling place and misidentify yourself and use other people’s identity and say that to our election judges as you apply for a ballot, whether or not you intend to vote.”
The Deceptive Editing
Moriarty also said the videos posted online of their efforts were deceptively edited. She said election judges raised concerns about what she described as their “strange behavior” and flagged it to police. The living voters whose names O’Keefe and Higby attempted to use said they had no knowledge of their efforts.
“There’s no such thing as an ‘undercover’ investigation in the polling place,” Moriarty said. “You have to identify yourself as a journalist in the polling place, which they did not.”
The Context
The charges come days before the November 3 midterm elections and as President Donald Trump’s administration has sent multiple states lists of what it alleges are noncitizens on voter rolls. Trump has for years made false and disproven claims about widespread voting fraud.
O’Keefe, 42, founded Project Veritas, a right-wing activist group that targeted journalists in sting videos that were often deceptively edited. He was fired by the board in 2023 and has since founded O’Keefe Media Group.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement that polling places should be “islands of calm” and that “any attempt to disrupt or deceive our election workers will not be tolerated.”
The Bottom Line
James O’Keefe and Cam Higby have been charged with felony unlawful voting and identity theft for allegedly using real voters’ names at Minnesota polling places in August. They were testing the state’s vouching process while wearing disguises and filming. They did not ultimately cast votes. The charges come less than a week before the midterms. O’Keefe and Higby have not commented.
My Opinion
James O’Keefe has spent his career dressing up as someone else, filming people without their consent, and editing the results to make them look bad.
Let us be clear about what O’Keefe actually did. He did not vote illegally. He did not cast a fraudulent ballot. He tried to use the names of real people — some of them dead — to test a process and was stopped before he could complete the fraud. His defenders will say that proves the system works. But the system working does not mean the attempt was legal.
Moriarty put it plainly: “Whether or not they intended to vote is irrelevant.” You cannot walk into a polling place, claim to be someone else, and expect to walk out without consequences.
The timing is not coincidental, even if Moriarty says it is. O’Keefe wanted to prove that voter fraud is easy. Instead, he proved that election officials are paying attention. The only thing he managed to expose was himself.
