Minnesota charges O'Keefe and Higby with unlawful voting and identity theft

A Minnesota prosecutor on Wednesday charged conservative provocateur James O'Keefe and conservative journalist Cam Higby with felony unlawful voting and identity theft, saying the two misrepresented themselves at polling places in August using the names of registered voters ¹.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who announced the charges at a news conference, said the pair entered polling places during state primary voting on Aug. 11 and identified themselves using names of registered voters in those precincts without those voters' knowledge or permission ¹. The charges allege neither man cast a vote and that they left one polling place after being asked for identification ².

The two were using a process under Minnesota law known as vouching, which allows a registered voter who lives in the same precinct to vouch for up to eight voters, while staff members of residential facilities can vouch for their residents ¹. The pair disguised themselves and recorded themselves going undercover with hidden cameras, posting the videos on social media in August ¹. O'Keefe said in a post on X that they wore Muslim garb and aimed to expose what he portrayed as absurdity in Minnesota's vouching system ¹.

Moriarty said her office was alerted to their conduct by the office of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon ¹. She said police interviewed the registered voters whose names were used, and that the pair also used names of deceased voters; asked where they obtained those names, she said "We don't know that" ¹. According to the charges, O'Keefe used the names of deceased Minnesotans and a Minnesotan who was alive and had voted in the primary ².

Moriarty said the charges had nothing to do with the men's political views or the fact that their disguises could be viewed as derogatory and offensive ².

Simon said in August that the group's "apparent goal was to cast doubt on one or more Minnesota election laws that have been in force for over fifty years. Instead, they revealed their ignorance of how those laws actually work — while putting themselves in legal jeopardy" ¹. He added: "The misconduct by this group is outrageous and totally unacceptable" ¹.

Moriarty said the two are not in jail and will be issued a summons to appear in Minnesota for a court appearance ¹. They are due in court in November, and no lawyer is currently listed as representing either man ². Neither O'Keefe nor Higby immediately responded to requests for comment ¹.

The charges land as President Donald Trump has alleged for years that Democrats have committed voter fraud or rigged elections against him, and as his administration has tried to obtain state voter roll lists and identify alleged noncitizen voters ¹. O'Keefe has previously been involved in other voter fraud-related incidents: in 2024 he and Project Veritas, which he founded, settled a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania postmaster after the group promoted a postal worker's false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election, and he was removed as the group's head in 2023 ¹. He now leads the Citizen Justice League ².

That matters because the case puts a felony prosecution of a prominent fraud investigator on the calendar in the final week of a midterm campaign in which allegations about election integrity are already central ¹². The pattern is that the vouching system the videos targeted remains in place, and the legal question now is whether the men misrepresented themselves when they applied for ballots, not whether they cast one ¹².

The Record

1. Aug 11, 2026O'Keefe and Higby entered polling places during Minnesota's state primary and identified themselves using names of registered voters, according to the charges ¹.
2. Oct 28, 2026Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced felony unlawful voting and identity theft charges against O'Keefe and Higby ¹.

Sources

1. NBC News, “Conservative influencer James O’Keefe charged with unlawful voting and identity theft in Minnesota” (2026-10-28). nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/james-okeefe-minnesota-un
2. startribune.com, “Influencers who tried to vote in MN charged with identity theft” (2026-10-28). startribune.com/conservative-influencers-face-identity-theft

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