Project Veritas has released the results of an investigation into alleged ballot harvesting by supporters of Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, a key swing state in the 2020 presidential election.
Video footage captured by Project Veritas shows an operative, Liban Mohamed, bragging about collecting hundreds of ballots.
“Numbers do not lie. Numbers do not lie. … You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots. Can’t you see? Look at all these; my car is full,” Mohamed can be heard saying in the video.
The video also includes testimony from a whistleblower, Omar Jamal, who called Rep. Omar’s alleged ballot harvesting an “open secret” and also discussed an alleged cash-for-votes scheme organized by staffers of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
She [Ilhan Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected and she [Omar] has hundreds of people on the streets doing that,” said Jamal.
James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas, said, “Ballot harvesting is real and it has become a big business. Our investigation into this ballot harvesting ring demonstrates clearly how these unscrupulous operators exploit the elderly and immigrant communities — and have turned the sacred ballot box into a commodities trading desk.”
O’Keefe said, “We are showing Americans what is really going on in one of our great cities — but, it is not me saying — we have the operatives on tape saying it all themselves.”
Project Veritas said its investigation found three locations inside Ward 6, a ballot harvesting triangle, where the scheme operates: The Riverside Plaza apartments, the senior citizen community at Horn Towers, and the Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services office at 980 E. Hennepin Ave., which also functions as a voting location and ballot drop-off site.
Jared Edge, the chief legal officer for Project Veritas, said that Mohamed and other ballot harvesters could face heavy penalties for their alleged violations of the law.
“The federal laws, 18 USC §597 and 52 U.S.C. §10307(c), are quite clear,” he said. “In the case of 18 USC §597, it is punishable by up to two years in prison and in the case of 52 USC §10307 it’s punishable by up to $10,000 in fines and up to five years in prison.”
The Minnesota statute, 211B.13(1) prohibits paying a person or receiving money to register to vote or to vote, he said. “This is a state felony punishable by more than one-year imprisonment.”
Beyond paying voters, there are also state and federal laws regarding intimidation of voters, he said.
“The federal laws 52 USC §20511, 18 USC §594 and 52 USC §10307(b) and the Minnesota statue 211B.07 prohibits anyone from using undue influence, threats, intimidation or fraud to influence a person’s vote or to influence them to vote at all,” he said.
It is also a violation of federal law for anyone who votes for others illegally,” he said.
“The punishment under 52 USC §10307(e) also goes up to five years’ incarceration and a $10,000 fine,” he said.
“In addition to those statutes, Minnesota has another statute, 211B.11(3), which makes it a misdemeanor to induce or persuade a voter to vote for or against a candidate, while transporting the voter to the polls,” he said.
Story cited here.
