MARK VANCLEAVE, REBECCA BOONE MINNEAPOLIS — Conservative activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby were charged Wednesday with unlawful voting and identity theft after a Minnesota prosecutor said they gave false names to poll workers during the state’s primary election. The men recorded the exchanges for a video to expose what they say are vulnerabilities in the state’s voting laws.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced the felony charges at a news conference. She said O’Keefe, 42, of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Higby, 26, of Covington, Washington, wore costumes and used the names of registered state voters while starting the “vouching” process in the Aug. 11 primary. The process provides a way for unregistered voters who lack proof of their current address to and vote afterg an oath of eligibility.

Poll workers were suspicious and reported their behavior. Moriarty said the situation shows that “the system for identifying misconduct and responding to it functioned well during the primary.”O’Keefe, who founded and later was ousted as leader of Project Veritas, came to notoriety by publishing undercover sting-style videos like the one made at the Minnesota polling places. He was not immediately available for comment, and court records do not name an attorney to comment on his behalf.

Higby did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment and did not have an attorney in court records. Neither of them has had an opportunity to enter a plea.

Minnesota allows registered voters to “vouch” for another voter in the same precinct byg an oath attesting to the second person’s identity and that they live in the precinct. The person being vouched for also must sign an oath attesting to their identity and eligibility to vote, and must also provide their Minnesota driver’s license or identification card number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

The process is rarely used but is most commonly done by older adults who have not updated their address on a driver’s license because they no longer drive. In the November 2024 election, fewer than 0.6% of votes cast used the process, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office website.

In their video that was posted to Youtube on Aug. 13, O’Keefe, Higby and others dressed in costumes similar to attire worn by some Muslims and used fake accents while asking about the vouching process at multiple Minneapolis voting sites. Higby’s face was covered and when talking to poll workers O’Keefe referred to him as his wife.

Moriarty said both men “identified themselves using names of registered voters in the precinct without those voters’ knowledge or permission.”The poll workers noticed the “strange behavior” and flagged it to election officials, Moriarty said, who asked police to investigate. The men stopped short ofg the oath required for vouching, but Moriarty said that giving false names and starting the process was enough to justify the felony charges.

“Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy, and their protection is one of our highest priorities,” Moriarty said.

O’Keefe’s organization, O’Keefe Media Group, posted a statement and the video on its website and said the men presented “an intentionally extreme scenario to expose what they see as the lunacy of the state’s ‘vouching’ system.”

“The team wanted to determine how election workers would respond, what safeguards they would describe, and how far they would allow the vouching process to proceed,” the statement said. “Not every election worker reacted the same way. While several workers explained how the undercover team could proceed under the vouching rules, others became suspicious of the group and took issue with the investigation. Some workers communicated concerns about the team over their radios.”

David Becker, a former Justice Department official and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said he wasn’t aware of any examples of vouching leading to organized or widespread fraud. But he said there have been more efforts recently by those pushing voter fraud claims to commit questionable acts themselves. “Impersonating another voter is a very serious crime,” Becker said.

Voter identification laws vary from state to state. Thirty-six states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but that identification can range from a photo ID to things like a utility bill or bank statement.

In the remaining 14 states and Washington, D.C., voters can cast a ballot without showing ID. They must verify their identity in various other ways, likeg an affidavit or providing personal information like birth date, name or address.

Some states, like Minnesota, allow election officials or other registered voters to vouch for people without a current ID. Alaska and New Hampshire, for instance, allow officials like a clerk or a supervisor to verify a voter’s identity if they know the voter personally. North Dakota allows people who lack identification cards because of a disability to have an attester certify that they are a qualified voter. West Virginia allows an adult who has known a voter for at least six months to sign a sworn statement verifying the voter’s identity.

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed.