WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — James O’Keefe, a far-right activist, faced backlash on Thursday after he shared a video on Aug. 13 showing him posing as a registered voter during the primary on Aug. 11 in Minnesota.
In the video, O’Keefe, 42, who has ties to West Palm Beach, described his costume as “traditional Muslim attire.” He faked a foreign accent as he talked to a poll worker about a Minnesota law.
On Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement calling for a criminal investigation into O’Keefe’s actions in the undercover video.
“Falsely impersonating a real voter, and using anti-Muslim stereotypes to do it, is not an acceptable substitute for legitimate civic oversight,” Jaylani Hussein, the CAIR-Minnesota executive director, said, according to the statement.
Critics cite that the video shows O’Keefe identifying as William Pomerantz, who was born in Pittsburgh and is a professor and researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“I actually had a student contact me that had showed me what was online about my identity being misrepresented. So, that was pretty much a shock ... Kudos to the poll workers. They reported it afterwards. and frankly, I got to vote that evening without a problem. So, you know, the voting process, in my mind, worked,” Pomerantz told WCCO-TV CBS Minnesota on Wednesday, adding that he had learned about the video on Aug. 14.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon released a statement on Aug. 14 about the “hidden-camera video” and the state election law that O’Keefe and other activists were criticizing.
“Their apparent goal was to cast doubt on one or more Minnesota election laws that have been in force for over fifty years,” Simon said in the statement. “Instead, they revealed their ignorance of how those laws actually work – while putting themselves in legal jeopardy.”
The poll workers reported the incidents to local election officials, and local law enforcement was investigating the reports, according to Simon.
“The misconduct by this group is outrageous and totally unacceptable,” Simon said. “We have zero tolerance for lying, lawbreaking, and disruptions at our polling places.”
Minnesota law allows eligible registered voters with identification to sign an oath to vouch for up to eight potential voters who meet the state’s requirements in their precinct.
“In the 2024 general election, less than 0.6% of votes cast used this process,” Simon said in the statement. “Around 71% of those voters were already registered to vote but needed to update their name or address in their voter record. Vouching is commonly used in senior living facilities by residents who have not updated their driver’s licenses to reflect their current residence.”
Simon said “vouching” is also used in cases where an eligible voter has recently moved to a new address and lacks identification indicating the new address. He described a process with checks and balances.
“Vouchers must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that they personally know the person being vouched for is a resident of the precinct,” Simon said. “Every voter who registers or updates their registration on Election Day, including those who are vouched for, is recorded by local election officials and verified in our state database after each election. If a discrepancy is found during this process, it is referred to local law enforcement for investigation and possible prosecution.”
O’Keefe founded the O’Keefe Media Group, or OMG, in 2023 after leaving Project Veritas, which he had founded in 2010.
On Aug. 13, O’Keefe released the video and reported that it was recorded in partnership with members of the Citizen Justice League, Cameron Higby and Anthony Rubin, one of the Muckraker Brothers.
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