Conservative influencers accused of illegal voting after election campaign in “Muslim costume” | Minneapolis

Two right-wing influencers have been charged with crimes in Minneapolis for trying during the state’s election primaries to disguise themselves in what they called “Muslim clothing” and pretend they were local voters.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby visited Minnesota polling places during the state’s August primary in an attempt to show the vulnerabilities of the “vouching” practice, in which a registered voter in the same precinct can vouch for the eligibility of another voter.

Hennepin County Prosecutor Mary Moriarty announced the charges at a news conference Wednesday, saying both would be charged with felonies for illegal voting and identity theft. The two men entered several polling places and identified themselves using the names of Minnesota voters registered in those precincts, Moriarty said, thereby intentionally misrepresenting their identities to election judges.

State law allows the use of a guarantor, which is rarely used; In the 2024 general election, less than 0.6% of votes used the guarantor process, the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website says, largely due to people needing to update their name or address in voter rolls.

Voters must still have other means of verifying their identity, and vouchers must sign an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, attesting that they personally know the voter they are vouching for. A voter can vouch for eight other people.

O’Keefe and Higby did not sign those affidavits or obtain ballots, Moriarty said. If they had signed those affidavits, it would have been perjury, she said. Affidavits are a guarantee of the vouching system.

Even without the publicly released videos by O’Keefe and Higby, Moriarty said his office could have charged the case because election judges at the precinct noted their “strange behavior” and participation in the investigation.

O’Keefe, the founder of the discredited right-wing attack organization Project Veritas, and Higby presented their work as investigative journalism and used undercover methods, including misrepresenting their identities, as part of their videos.

In social media posts after the charges were announced, Higby called them “lawfare” and claimed “no laws were broken” while linking to a fundraising site to cover his legal fees.

“I showed how Minnesota allows cheating in elections. Now they want to take away my right to vote. It’s a legal fight,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They want to scare all independent journalists who might challenge them. It’s FASCISM.”

In the video from Minnesota polls, O’Keefe gives other people’s names when trying to vouch for voters. Moriarty said these Minnesota voter names were used without those voters’ knowledge.

Moriarty said some of the voter names used by the two men were deceased, but others were alive. A man whose name was used in an attempt to vouch actually voted in the primary, so he was “shocked” that his name was used by both men, she said.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Moriarty said, “If you identify yourself as a journalist, there is no such thing as an undercover investigation at the polling place. You have to identify yourself as a journalist at the polling place, which they didn’t do.”

The videos emerged as Donald Trump and his allies have made frequent unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Trump has made Minnesota a target of his election lies in the past, often claiming he won the state three times. He lost it three times.

The two men’s political views and the intent of their video did not play into the decision to charge, Moriarty said.

“It’s not against the law to be offensive. It’s not against the law to say the things they said if you’re outside the polling station,” she said. “So, no, we can’t let people’s political leanings or whatever they’re here for influence our decisions about whether or not to bring criminal charges.”

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said the state’s high turnout and election administration were due in part to polling places being “islands of calm.”

“These places – the schools, churches and senior centers in our communities – are the heart of our democracy and, as such, should be places of safety and peace,” Simon said in a statement. “Any attempt to disrupt or mislead our election workers will not be tolerated. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for holding these individuals accountable.”