Hennepin County attorney charges O’Keefe and Higby with voting felonies

Moriarty said the pair did not sign affidavits or obtain ballots

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced felony charges Wednesday against conservative influencers James O’Keefe and Cam Higby over their attempt to use Minnesota’s voter-vouching system during the state’s August primary. Moriarty said the men entered multiple polling places, identified themselves as registered voters and used some voters’ identities without their knowledge. Moriarty said O’Keefe and Higby neither signed the affidavits required for vouching nor obtained ballots.

Moriarty said both men would be charged with felonies for unlawful voting and identity theft. Their stated aim was to show vulnerabilities in the process, under which a registered voter from the same precinct can vouch for another voter’s eligibility. The Guardian reported that O’Keefe and Higby also went to polling places in disguises they called “Muslim garb” while seeking to pose as local voters.

Under state law, a registered voter from the same precinct may vouch for another voter’s eligibility. Vouching does not eliminate other identity-verification requirements: a voucher must personally know the voter and sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury. A voter may vouch for up to eight others. The Minnesota secretary of state’s website says vouching was used for less than 0.6% of votes in the 2024 general election, largely by people updating names or addresses in voter records.

Moriarty said O’Keefe and Higby did not sign those affidavits or obtain ballots. Had they signed, she said, doing so would have been perjury; she described the affidavits as a safeguard for the vouching system. Election judges in the precincts noted their “strange behavior” and participated in the investigation. Moriarty said her office could have brought the charges even if O’Keefe and Higby had not publicly posted the videos.

In the videos, O’Keefe gave other people’s names when attempting to vouch for voters. Moriarty said the names were used without those voters’ knowledge; some belonged to deceased people and others to living people. One man whose name was used actually voted in the primary, Moriarty said, and was “shocked” that O’Keefe and Higby had used it.

O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, and the two men have cast their work as investigative journalism. Their undercover methods have included misrepresenting their identities. After the charges were announced, Higby called them “lawfare,” claimed “no laws were broken” and linked to a fundraising site to cover his legal expenses. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “I showed how Minnesota allows cheating in elections. Now they want to TAKE MY RIGHT TO VOTE AWAY. This is lawfare,” he wrote. “They want to scare all independent journalists who may challenge them. This is FASCISM.”

Moriarty said the men’s political views and the intent of their video did not play into the charging decision. “If you identify as a journalist, there is no such thing as undercover investigation in the polling place. You have to identify yourself as a journalist in the polling place, which they did not do,” she said.

“It is not against the law to be offensive. It’s not against the law to say the things that they said if you’re standing outside the polling place,” Moriarty said. “So, no, we can’t let people’s political bent or whatever they’re here to do affect our decisions in deciding whether to issue felony charges.”

The videos came as Donald Trump and his allies had made frequent, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, The Guardian reported. The outlet said Trump had often claimed that he won Minnesota three times and had lost the state three times.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said the state’s high voter turnout and election administration stem in part from keeping polling places as “islands of calm.” “These locations – our communities’ schools, churches, and senior centers – 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 deceive our election workers will not be tolerated. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for holding these individuals to account.”