Conservative activist: Video shows campaigns encouraging illegal votes
Conservative provocateur James O'Keefe says video his organization captured in Mecklenburg County shows that North Carolina campaigns are willing to tell people in the U.S. illegally to vote.
Posted — UpdatedThe video, O'Keefe said during a news conference in Raleigh Thursday, is the first of at least two he plans to release about North Carolina by early next week. Tuesday is Election Day.
The Mecklenburg video is typical of the filmmaker's oeuvre, in which he goads unsuspecting campaign workers or other individuals into endorsing apparently illegal or unethical activity.
"Clearly in the video, people are instructing and telling people to vote even though they completely understand they are non-citizens," O'Keefe said.
None of the people in the video are state officials, nor are they candidates themselves. Rather, O'Keefe's video captures people who are handing out literature outside polling places on behalf of candidates, such as the Republican and Democrat running for sheriff, the father of a judicial candidate and those working the polls for legislative candidates.
There are roughly 6.6 million people registered to vote in North Carolina.
"We are working to ensure that no ballot cast by a non-citizen will count in this or any future election," state elections director Kim Westbrook Strach said in the news release.
O'Keefe said his group has been doing similar work in both Wake and Durham counties, but he declined to specify what his next video might show.
"All journalism is selectively edited, especially print journalism," O'Keefe said. "No TV organization I can think of releases their full raw tapes," adding that everything that was said was "in context."
Related Topics
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.