A poll worker in Minneapolis told two men with cameras that a registered voter who vouches for another person is “the ID.” The exchange was recorded.
The men were James O’Keefe and Cam Higby. This week, a Minnesota prosecutor charged both of them with felonies.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Wednesday that O’Keefe, 42, and Higby, 26, face counts of unlawful voting and identity theft.
Her office delivered the charges by summons. O’Keefe’s case number is 27-CR-26-28438, and Higby’s is 27-CR-26-28437.
The conversation they recorded centers on a rule Minnesota has kept on its books since the early 1970s. One registered voter in a precinct may vouch for the residency of up to eight other people.
Those people can register and vote the same day without standard proof of residence, as long as they meet the remaining eligibility requirements.
O’Keefe and Higby tested that rule at several Minneapolis polling places.
They wore traditional Muslim attire, carried cameras, offered election workers the names of voters and asked how vouching works in practice.
Millions of people have watched the resulting videos online.
Both men left each location without signing the oath applicants must complete. Neither cast a ballot.
Higby described his own account in a livestream.
“I didn’t actually vote. I just showed up and tested the system. But they were going to allow me to vote just with first, last and address. And actually, at one of the polling locations where they told me that I didn’t need ID for myself or the eight other people that I was vouching for, they didn’t even ask my address. All they asked for was first and last, and they couldn’t see my face.”
The group behind the project, which calls itself the Justice League, denied any impersonation in an earlier statement.
“The Justice League did not impersonate anyone. At no point did we claim to be William Pomerantz or any other voter. We stated a name and asked election workers questions about Minnesota’s vouching process.”
The group went on to say that “Justice League journalists did not cast ballots.
The investigation was intended to test the limits of Minnesota’s vouching law and document how election workers apply it on Election Day.”
O’Keefe had said the encounters revealed the “sheer lunacy” of the rules.
He also questioned official criticism of the project after workers indicated that vouching was possible for multiple unregistered people.
Moriarty’s office built its case on a state statute that prohibits misrepresentation “in applying for a ballot.” Prosecutors allege the two men gave false identities to election workers while applying.
In her statement, Moriarty addressed the question of politics head-on.
“It is not against the law to be performative, it is not against the law to be offensive, it is not against the law to say the things they said standing outside the polling place. We can’t let people’s political bent or what they’re here to do affect our decisions in deciding whether to issue felony charges. We take that very seriously,” she said.
She then laid out what she called the core issue.
“None of that played a role. 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 when you apply for a ballot, whether or not you intend to vote,” Moriarty said.
According to Moriarty, the pair “did begin to apply” when they stated false identities. She described the charges as low-level felonies and said a conviction would likely lead to probation.
Higby replied to the charges on X. He called them politically motivated “lawfare” and wrote that he “showed how Minnesota allows cheating in elections.”
He also wrote that officials “want me in PRISON for exposing election vulnerabilities in their state” and are seeking to “scare all independent journalists who may challenge them.”
Neither journalist cast a ballot at any point during the investigation.
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