Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe has been criminally charged over a polling place stunt meant to expose supposed weaknesses in Minnesota’s election laws.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced charges Wednesday against O’Keefe and Cam Higby, members of the Florida-based O’Keefe Media Group, accusing them of identity theft and unlawful voting, reported KSTP-TV.
The charges stem from videos the pair posted online in August during Minnesota’s primary election. In the footage, one member of the group, which calls itself the “Justice League,” is dressed in a burqa, while another man can be heard using an accent as he tries to vouch for others.
At Pratt Elementary School in Minneapolis, someone in the group gave a poll worker the first name “William” and, when asked for a last name, replied “Pomeranz,” before asking about the state’s vouching law. William Pomeranz is an actual registered voter in Minneapolis.
O’Keefe’s group denied wrongdoing.
“The Justice League did not impersonate anyone. At no point did we claim to be William Pomerantz or any other voter,” the group said in a statement, using another spelling for the voter's name. “We stated a name and asked election workers questions about Minnesota’s vouching process.”
The group apparently left the polling place after being told the man would need to sign an oath to vouch for someone.
Under Minnesota law, residents who have recently moved or lack a document showing their current address can register on Election Day if another registered voter from the same precinct vouches for their address. The voucher must sign an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that they personally know the person lives in the precinct. The new voter must still provide a driver’s license or state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
Secretary of State Steve Simon said just 0.6 percent of Minnesota voters were vouched for in 2024, and he does not recall a single case of vouching fraud during his tenure.
The law has drawn fire from the Trump administration. In January, the Justice Department demanded Minnesota hand over all records related to its vouching system, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon tweeted that the law “seems facially inconsistent with the Help America Vote Act of 2002.” The department has taken no further action, and a judge dismissed an earlier DOJ lawsuit against the state over voter registration.
Simon said O’Keefe’s group apparently set out “to cast doubt on one or more Minnesota election laws.”
“Instead, they revealed their ignorance of how those laws actually work — while putting themselves in legal jeopardy,” he said.