Cameron Higby, 26, walked into a Minneapolis polling location during the August 2026 Minnesota primary wearing a burqa, gave a woman's name, and was handed a ballot. He didn't cast it. He didn't vote. He filmed it.
Now he and James O'Keefe face felony charges.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced criminal charges against both men — unlawful voting and identity theft — for a viral undercover video that showed the holes in Minnesota’s elections. Higby entering polling places in Muslim garb, attempting to vote under someone else's name, and vouching for O'Keefe to demonstrate another gap in the system. Under Minnesota law, a single registered voter can vouch for up to eight other people at the polls. Higby and O'Keefe showed what that looks like in practice.
Neither man actually voted. The ballots were never cast. The video existed to prove that Minnesota's system would let them if they wanted to.
Moriarty's office framed the charges differently. She accused the journalists of "try[ing] to sow doubt about Minnesota's secure voting systems." That's the Hennepin County Attorney admitting the quiet part: the system isn't secure enough to stop what they did, so she's prosecuting the people who proved it instead.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon backed her up, declaring that polling places "are the heart of our democracy and as such should be places of safety and peace." He added that "any attempt to disrupt or deceive our election workers will not be tolerated." No mention of whether tolerating a system where one person can vouch eight strangers into a ballot booth was on his agenda.
Moriarty also offered this gem: "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." So the defense against exposing election vulnerabilities is a rule that says you have to announce you're about to expose election vulnerabilities. That would certainly make the investigation more convenient — for the people running the vulnerable system.
Higby's response was two sentences. "This is lawfare," he said. "Fascists lock up journalists."
O'Keefe, 42, has been through this playbook before — charged, prosecuted, vindicated — for doing exactly what investigative journalists are supposed to do: testing whether the system works the way officials claim it does.
Moriarty, it's worth noting, has financial ties to George Soros — the same donor network that funds progressive prosecutor campaigns nationwide. Her office chose to bring felony identity theft charges against a man who wore a costume and never voted, days before a midterm election. The timing answers the question her press conference didn't.
The vulnerability O'Keefe exposed is still there. The vouching system still lets one registered voter bring eight unverified people through the door. Nobody has been charged with leaving that door open. Nobody has proposed closing it.
The charges suggest otherwise.