The stunt during Minnesota’s primary election last August was audacious — and, prosecutors said Wednesday, a violation of state law.
The conservative activist James O’Keefe, known for secretly filming interactions to embarrass and discredit people, walked into polling stations on Election Day in Minneapolis wearing Islamic attire and speaking in a fake accent. He was accompanied by a fellow conservative content creator, Cam Higby.
They sought to draw attention to a Minnesota law that allows a registered voter to vouch for the identity of up to eight additional voters who have recently moved so they can cast ballots at precincts where they are not yet registered.
But citing as evidence a video that Mr. O’Keefe posted showing his interactions with poll workers, state prosecutors charged the pair with unlawful voting — which can include an attempt to obtain a ballot by impersonating a registered voter — and identity theft, both felonies. The maximum penalty for each of those crimes is five years in prison.
Prosecutors say that Mr. O’Keefe impersonated registered Minnesota voters during his conversations with poll workers, though no votes were actually cast fraudulently during the prank. He and Mr. Higby used false Arab accents and references to Muslim culture, which Minnesota’s secretary of state, Steve Simon, condemned as offensive. Mr. Higby wore black garments that covered his face and head, leading Mr. O’Keefe to joke that he resembled a “transgender wearing a burqa” in the video.
“The misconduct by this group is outrageous and totally unacceptable,” Mr. Simon said in a statement in August. “We have zero tolerance for lying, lawbreaking and disruptions at our polling places.
Efforts to reach Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Higby or their legal representatives were not immediately successful.
The charges against Mr. O’Keefe and Mr. Higby come amid a national debate over the security of state-run election systems. This month, the Justice Department charged more than four dozen people in five states with vote fraud, including 28 in California.
The Trump administration has been fighting to get Minnesota and several other states to turn over voter rolls with sensitive information, arguing that federal officials need that data to prevent fraud.
States that have fought that effort in federal court have so far prevailed across the board.
Minnesota’s vouching law has been on the books for more than 50 years and it’s used by a tiny fraction of voters, according to the secretary of state’s office, which says the mechanism has strong safeguards. In the general election in 2024, fewer than 0.6 percent of voters used the vouching system to cast ballots, Mr. Simon’s office said.
Voters who are new to a precinct, and have a registered voter who verifies that they live in the area, must provide a document such as a Minnesota driver’s license and the last four digits of their Social Security number to establish their identity and eligibility. The vouching system is commonly used by residents of senior living facilities who have not updated a new address on identity forms.
Wednesday’s charges are not the first legal entanglement for Mr. O’Keefe, who was the founder of Project Veritas, the right-wing investigative outlet known for its hidden camera stunts.
In 2010, he was charged with posing as a telephone repairman to enter the office of then-Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and received three years of probation.
In 2013, he was investigated by New Hampshire’s attorney general on suspicion of identifying himself at polling places using names of dead people to see if he could receive a ballot, but charges were never filed.
And in 2021, his home was searched and phone seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of its investigation into the stolen diary of Ashley Biden, the daughter of former President Joe Biden. Although Mr. O’Keefe was detained in that matter, he was never charged. He was fired in 2023 by Project Veritas’s board, which accused him of “financial malfeasance,” among other governance issues. He has since set up a new outlet, O’Keefe Media Group.
Next month, he is scheduled to host a journalism awards gala at Mar-a-Lago.
Mr. Higby, originally from New York state, worked for conservative news outlets before becoming an independent YouTuber and podcaster, with 285,000 subscribers.
Like other independent news creators aligned with the Trump administration, he travels frequently to political conflagrations and films his encounters with protesters. He was present in Minneapolis during the anti-ICE protests early this year and has also filmed activists critical of Israel.
Late last year, he was invited to take part in a round table discussing Antifa and left-wing activism at the White House; soon after he was credentialed as a member of the Pentagon Press corps, taking the place of traditional news outlets who had refused to sign a pledge restricting their ability to report on the department.
Jeff Ernst contributed reporting from Minneapolis.
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