James O’Keefe Video Purports to Show Ease of Voter Fraud in N.H. Primary
EmailA video posted the day after the New Hampshire Primary from conservative gonzo James O’Keefe either exposes why voting laws are too lax or comes close to itself being voter fraud (or both), by obtaining the ballots of dead Granite Staters on primary day.
The video has already sparked an investigation in the New Hampshire State Attorney General’s office, both because of the weaknesses of the electoral system it seems to demonstrate and the potential legal violations those making the film might have committed, according to N.H. Associate Attorney General Richard Head.
Poll workers in the video offer up ballots without requesting identification from off-camera operatives. Members of O’Keefe’s Project Veritas give names that the video alleges belong to deceased New Hampshire voters and receive ballots, even when they report that they forgot their IDs in the car. It would be considered voter fraud were any of them to vote under these names, but none of them do – at least on camera.
When one woman hears that the man she is attempting to give a ballot is dead and is asked if she might have any other deceased residents on her list, she laughs and asks, “How would I know if they were dead or not?”
Republicans in the state legislature passed a bill this summer that would have required photo identification for New Hampshire voters, but Governor John Lynch vetoed that legislation, saying, “ An eligible voter who goes to the polls to vote on Election Day should be able to have his or her vote count on Election Day.”
New Hampshire officials may take issue with the way in which this experiment was performed. It is against the New Hampshire State Code to record a conversation without the consent of both parties, and there is no evidence in the footage to support that those poll workers were aware they were being filmed.
Head said the state’s Attorney General’s Office became aware of the issue on election day and “immediately began conducting an investigation,” which he described as, “ongoing.”
To his knowledge, Head said that the question of voter fraud in the form of people taking ballots under the names of the deceased had not come up in the Granite State in the past.
In September 2011, the Department of Justice began reviewing an election law in South Carolina that required registered voters to produce a government-issued photo ID at the polls.
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Voter fraud easy in the primaries….no kidding. That’s how Obummer got through the primaries.
Posted by: Michael | January 12, 2012, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
How can you even compare convicted criminal prankster to Hunter S. Thompson, journalist, who was part of the press junket for the Presidential election in 72?
O’Keefe is not a journalist, gonzo, or anything else. He’s a guy who pulls illegal pranks to try to influence politics towards the right. As many articles have documented so far, this latest escapade is voter fraud to prove voter fraud. One lawyer compared it to “showing how easy it is to rob a bank with a plastic gun.” Yes, you can do it. Is it legal? No.
Here’s hoping he and his minions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that reputable news organizations stop lending any credibility to this convicted criminal.
Posted by: Julie Sigwart | January 12, 2012, 6:20 pm 6:20 pm
Okay.. let me get this straight,
A REPUBLICAN Operative.. Set up a Plot.. to show the ability to Commit Voter Fraud, at the REPUBLICAN Run Primary?… And they point at everyone else???????????
Hopefully this Guy will now go to Jail…oh wait… AGAIN.
This Illustrates the problem with the Party today. They are willing to Commit the Actions they claim the other side engage in… “To show it can be done”… So if they are willing to commit fraud just to Illustrate it ‘Can be Done’.. What morally is keeping them from engaging to ‘Win Elections’?
Note that it seems each time the GOP screams something is Occurring.. It usually is.. BY THEIR SIDE! Also note that the law seemingly broken was not Voter Law.. But rather the recording of person without their Knowledge in a 2 Party State (Meaning both Parties involved in Convo have to be aware it is being recorded).. Note no Mention of Voter Fraud laws being Broken.. Why?
Because Primaries are not technically Official Government Elections.. Never have been… Each Party could simply draw straws to pick Candidates for President if they wanted to. Why would a Primary that legally means nothing have the same sort of Polling Security as the actual election after all… These ‘Primaries’ are not even totally State Funded….. They are Quasi Private Affairs.. With each State and State Party able to make its own rules as to who and how people can vote in them. I hope this GOP Operative finally gets his Comeuppance. He is nothing but a Crinimal as he has proven time and time again.
Posted by: TruthSayer | January 12, 2012, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
O’keefe is a known criminal and should be shot on sight
Posted by: neastsider | January 12, 2012, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
Mr. O’Keefe needs to get a life. At least the men and women sitting behind a desk were kind enough to particiipate in the election process. For Mr. Okeefe to excercice voter fraud himself twelve times to prove that voter fraud existed is ludicrous. It is investigative methods that one would expect from a fourth grader or less. Frankly, he Mr. O”Keefe should be charged for voter fraud and for littering the airways with such nonsense.
Posted by: Daniell Kuhr | January 12, 2012, 7:00 pm 7:00 pm
You can shoot the messenger all you want; but, that doesn’t change the truth because the truth has no agenda.
Posted by: deanbob | January 12, 2012, 7:07 pm 7:07 pm
Let me get this straight James O’Keefe’s undeniably stupid demostration proves there is a flaw in our voting system and you dems still deny there is a problem. Boys we got a problem, its called denial.
Posted by: jky54 | January 12, 2012, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
How does the job Romney and Bane compare to what Obama and Solyndra have done?
Posted by: deanbob | January 12, 2012, 7:14 pm 7:14 pm
DEANBOB, stay on topic, Romny did not squander and payoff bundler with taxpayers money.
Posted by: Lizzie | January 12, 2012, 7:51 pm 7:51 pm
O’Keefe committed at least three crimes. 1- He recorded others secretly without their permission. 2- He forged and filed false documents. He conspired with others to commit criminal acts.
Why isn’t this a prominent part of your story?
Posted by: Mace | January 12, 2012, 7:55 pm 7:55 pm
Please, God, I beg you, talk about ANYTHING else beside the fact that these videos show just how easy it is to commit voter fraud without the the ID laws that Republicans favors.
Just try to slander the guy posting the video, like “Julie Sigwart” did.
Or hell, threaten to kill O’Keefe for posting this expose, like “neastsider” did.
But don’t, don’t, DON’T, *DON’T* under any circumstances, acknowledge that these videos prove just how easy it would be for people to commit untraceable vote fraud in New Hampshire because the Democrats insist that voters should not have to show identification.
Posted by: Dead Voter | January 12, 2012, 8:11 pm 8:11 pm
“I’m punching this guy in the face! Watch me punching him! See? This proves that EVERYBODY punches this guy in the face!”
What a tool.
Posted by: ExecutorElassus | January 12, 2012, 11:45 pm 11:45 pm
Good grief. Talk about shoot the messenger. Dateline and 20/20 have stayed in business by running investigative journalism episodes. Don’t know how ABC News can criticize the investigative journalism performed by others doing precisely the same thing someone like Brian Ross has been so effective at for decades.
Posted by: B. O. Buniontoe | January 13, 2012, 12:21 am 12:21 am
“Purports” to show fraud? No, he (O’Keefe) showed fraud. He demonstrated it. Over and over again. Purport is a real word with a real meaning and ABC is using it in a false manner in this headline. I thought journalists went to college to learn how words are used. I guess I was wrong about that. Journalists are a bunch of dopes and petty sychophants, if this headline is any evidence.
Posted by: Richard | January 13, 2012, 12:56 am 12:56 am
Hi, I’m James and I am trying to expose a flaw in your voting system that is used not only in the primaries but for all other voting as well. I am secretly recording you and requesting the ballots for these dead people.
Yeah right. Lay off the ideology crack pipe you liberals.
Posted by: Capitalism czar | January 13, 2012, 3:13 am 3:13 am
Republicans finally found the voter fraud they’ve been looking for all these years…By committing it themselves.
Posted by: blissfulight | January 13, 2012, 3:46 am 3:46 am
It’s an absolute pleasure to once again see liberals lose their collective minds whenever James O’keefe strikes. The level of insanity is proportional to the importance of what his project uncovered.
Kudos to the man making the Hunter S Thompson comparison. Brilliant.
Posted by: TheLastBrainLeft | January 13, 2012, 4:02 am 4:02 am
Hey Sarah, if you were such a crack reporter wouldn’t you have found a way to unearth whether or not O’Keefe used dead people? Oh I forgot. That’s not your intention and would interfere with ABC’s narrative-that there is no voter fraud as long as the ones committing it are Democrats. You guys are so yesterday, it’s hilarious. And you are NOT a reporter of any kind much less a crack one. Americans are entitled to have their voting process free of corruption. You seem to be cheering for the corrupt violators here instead of the interests of the American people. Do you really expect us to believe anything you ever say? Really? LOL.
Posted by: mickeymat | January 13, 2012, 5:07 am 5:07 am
This is just like the old 60 minutes with Mike Wallace, except this time really going for the truth! Kudos kid!
Posted by: The New Mike Wallace | January 13, 2012, 7:49 am 7:49 am
If NH doesn’t require ID to vote, then at least take as many dead people’s names off of the polling lists. If O’Keefe was using dead people’s names, then I curious to know how long these people have been dead for. If they have been dead for at least a month, then their names should not have appeared on those lists. Fair?
Posted by: Mike | January 13, 2012, 8:23 am 8:23 am
No one cared much about voter fraud on the right when Bush was elected… oh wait… he wasn’t.
Posted by: Michael | January 13, 2012, 8:55 am 8:55 am
The peoples right to vote is sacred. We are a nation of people who are self governed. Voting is what guarantees our freedom. The status quo wants and needs the system to be corrupt, it empowers the permanent political class.
It is time for reform of our most basic right as free people
Posted by: bob | January 13, 2012, 10:12 am 10:12 am
Hunter Thompson was convicted of robbery when he was in high school, before his self publicised life of crime. O’Keefe was convicted of a misdemeanor for his tactics. Other journalist consider that a badge of honor. “O’Keefe get a life”? Really, what have any of you done to change the world? What have you accomplished to make the world a better place. Taking down the corrupt Acorn was just a start. There is along list of prosecutions, not little misdemeanors, because of his work. Funny how the title ‘purports to show’ – and everyone else is ‘accused’ until tried. But you guys declare that James has committed a crime here. Had your share of Kool-Aid this morning?
Posted by: Terry | January 13, 2012, 10:44 am 10:44 am
O’Keefe exposes the dirty underbelly of corrupt public institutions that have absolutely no regard for democratic freedoms or responsibilities. The public lives in a cloud distracted by entertainment or other virtual bar rooms while their freedoms are being curtailed by zealot leftists completely disdaining constitutional boundries. Voting is a privilege reserved to citizens and obtaining proof to that effect is necessary and easy to obtain; epecially given the exigencies presented by illegal immigration would be voters.
Posted by: stonetemplepilot | January 13, 2012, 11:00 am 11:00 am
O’Keefe is a criminal punk. His hit piece on ACORN was proven to be fabricated, edited and doctored to show his agenda, and not the truth. He should be in jail.
Posted by: A Cynic | January 13, 2012, 11:36 am 11:36 am
This is absolutely insane on its face.
Because of James O’Keefe, we can now assume illegal immigrants are coordinating in mass efforts to vote by doing research to find out who died in the last month, and then going and voting as them, risking felony conviction and deportation. Illegals don’t put themselves at risk. They drive below the speed limit, and disappear even when someone says “La Migra” in jest. I wonder what the success rate would have been if O’Keefe used decoys that were not white English-speaking males?
And if this treacherous group of immigrants bent on thwarting our system are this coordinated, don’t you think they’d get fake IDs once an ID law was put into place?
Posted by: Mary Stone | January 13, 2012, 11:52 am 11:52 am
Ok, both Sides, simmer. Everyone is wrong and right. This guy is a muckraker sure, what he’s done with Acorn, criminal, but he proved THE POINT. Objectively, there is something wrong with the system, (and people in general). Of course after Dubya Bush, and Diebold, why a “Conservative” is doing this is beyond me – more than the Their Side’s use of it against the other side. Still, there is a problem, as evidenced by the video, that either does (even if alittle bit) affect all of us. Beyond that, there’s the blowback and highlighting that even proving something is illegal, can be illegal (how are we ever going to solve any problems if criminal behavior can hide behind rules established for decent folk), is one more stab in our back and proof that we need change more than politics.
Posted by: Una Blogger | January 13, 2012, 5:19 pm 5:19 pm
Oh give me a break “Truthsayer”…he is merely trying to demonstrate that it CAN happen. You guys keep saying that voter fraud doesn’t happen but it does. And here is someone trying to show you how easy it is and why we need more safeguards, and you twist it around and try to make it like the ones who are trying to reform the system are the perpetrators. Have you EVER been objective in your entire life??
And no, he shouldn’t be compared to gonzo “journalism” because that implies subjectivity without real facts. This is a guy who is exposing the problems with the system and you guys are upset because he exposes things that you guys LIKE to engage in. Whatever happened to integrity and honesty? Has everbody on the left lost their ability for objectivity too???
Posted by: JanineC | January 13, 2012, 8:00 pm 8:00 pm
If any laws were broken the person who broke those laws need to be charged, taken to court and hit with the maximum possible penalties.
Is there any doubt if this was a poor black kid who did this that he would not be in jail right now awaiting criminal prosecution?
Posted by: Rob | January 14, 2012, 9:00 am 9:00 am
So he fraudulently obtained ballots, now claimns he didn’t break any law? Who’s his lawyer? Bozo the clown?
If his intent was to demonstrate the “inadequacy” of the current law, let him feel the full force of that “inadequate” law. Then, if he feels hios punishment was inadequate, we can maybe begin to take his views of the current law seriously.
Posted by: Nicole | January 14, 2012, 9:32 am 9:32 am
If voter fraud is so easy then why were the police called and the fraudsters are now under investigation?
It seem like the system has worked and O’keefe and cohorts will be spending some jail time.
Thanks, O’keefe, for proving that large scale voter fraud is impossible.
Whar a maroon. He videos himself breaking the law.
Posted by: Neuron Flash | January 14, 2012, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
Wow … the guy points out how easy it is to fraudulently get a ballot and folks want to hang him instead of going after the pinheads who didn’t follow voting protocol. You liberals are a real hoot!!
Posted by: WOB | January 28, 2012, 4:38 pm 4:38 pm