Project Veritas released the results of a new eye-opening investigation into ballot harvesting in Representative Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) district. James O'Keefe explains, “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. 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.”
Screenshot of Project Veritas Ballot Harvest Investigation/YouTube
The investigation starts with a confession by an operative Liban Mohamed, the brother of Minneapolis City Council member Jamal Osman, driving and bragging about collecting hundreds of ballots. “Just today we got 300 for Jamal Osman. 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." He added, "Look, all these are for Jamal Osman,” he says, displaying the white envelopes strewn across his dashboard. “Money is the king in this world . . . and a campaign is driven by money.”
Omar Jamal, Somali Watchdog Group
Whistleblower, Omar Jamal, who is part of the Ramsey County Sheriff's office and chair of the Somali Watchdog Group, said Representative Omar’s alleged ballot harvesting is, “An open secret". He also mentioned an alleged cash-for-votes scheme organized by staffers of Representative Omar. “She [Ilhan Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected and she [Ilhan Omar] has hundreds of people on the streets doing that.”
Jamal added, “It’s not only her. It’s all this DFL [Democratic-Farmers-Labor] machine [that’s] in the state of Minnesota. The regulations, if you ignore that and you let corruption and fraud become a daily business and then tough luck, the country will not exist as they [Americans] know it.”
Inside Ward 6, Project Veritas said its investigation found three locations within 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.
(L) Gainey with Rep Omar (R)
In addition, an anonymous former political worker from Minneapolis told Project Veritas that, before Minnesota’s primary elections on August 8, ballot harvesters “took every single ballot” from elderly people in a Minneapolis public housing complex — the Charles Horn Towers. “Knock on the door and say, ‘Your ballots come? Give it to me.’ ” She alleged that Omar’s campaign deputy district director Ali (Isse) Gainey, was “coordinating everything.”
Gainey, “who is working in Ilhan’s campaign, is the one who is managing the voting place. They bring them. They line them. They put the open ballots in there and then they take them in and say, ‘Here,’ and the people mark [the ballots]. They have perfected this system,” she said. “They will tell you, ‘We are applying for your ballot.’ They take a picture of your Social Security and your driver’s license. They have a database. When the ballot comes, they track it. Sometimes, they make fake emails. They track the ballot. Then they come and pick up the ballot, unopened." She added, “They don’t give a s–t about any Somali, the DFL wants to win this state at all costs and the victims is the Somali people.”
Young people and women were paid for their ballots before last month’s Minnesota primary she alleged. “Cash, cash, cash. They were carrying bags of money. When you vote and they mark you off, then you get in the van, they give you the cash.”
Chief legal officer for Project Veritas, Jared Edge 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 USC §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 the 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 added, “It is also a violation of federal law for anyone who votes for others illegally.”
Edge continued, “The punishment under 52 USC §10307(e) also goes up to five years’ incarceration and a $10,000 fine. 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.
Check out Project Veritas website for more on this story and for other groundbreaking investigations.
