O’Keefe is the founder and former CEO of Project Veritas, an organization known for producing documentary-style videos with undercover footage, and he has a history of producing content aimed at undermining confidence in U.S. elections through both Project Veritas and his follow-up media venture, the O’Keefe Media Group. O’Keefe and his operatives released several hidden camera videos during the 2020 election, for example, that accused candidates of ballot harvesting and the Postal Service of backdating ballots. In 2012, O’Keefe tricked a polling station volunteer into giving him then-Attorney General Eric Holder’s ballot by providing only his name.

In March, O’Keefe announced the creation of the Citizen Justice League, which bills itself as a “network of citizen journalists exposing corruption and demanding accountability for America.” O’Keefe and other right-wing content creators — such as Muckraker's Anthony Rubin, who describes himself as a “guerrilla journalist,” and Cam Higby, who has been affiliated with Turning Point USA's Frontlines and describes himself as “an America-First Independent Journalist” — have united under its banner to produce content, most recently around the primary elections in several states. Rubin explained the group’s strategy on The Benny Show: “Multiple journalists descend on one story and then over the course of a week or so we all just keep hammering the same story” so politicians “can’t ignore the story.”

Earlier this year, several right-wing content creators replicated O’Keefe’s undercover playbook in Los Angeles and deployed Citizen Justice League’s strategy. O'Keefe, Higby, and Rubin, as well as TPUSA’s Jonathan Choe and Savanah Hernandez produced a string of videos (most of which appear to have been made in direct collaboration with the Citizen Justice League) that alleged a voter registration fraud scheme on Skid Row involving volunteers exchanging cash for voter registrations or ballot petition signatures. Following Nithya Raman's late surge over Spencer Pratt in the primary result for Los Angeles mayor in June, right-wing media and the Trump administration leveraged their content to assert that the election was rigged. 

Ahead of the California primary elections, federal prosecutors arrested and charged one of the petitioners in O'Keefe's Skid Row video with a felony for allegedly “paying another person to register to vote.” O’Keefe said his video was sent to the Department of Justice, and declared that “there will be a new tape dropping every day until someone is arrested or indicted.” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli credited “undercover videos that took place at Skid Row” for a subsequent arrest.

In August, O’Keefe and other right-wing content creators affiliated with his Citizen Justice League descended on Minnesota to attack the state's voter voucher system, claiming to be registered voters in various precincts and asking poll workers if they would be able to vouch for several unregistered individuals who lacked photo ID.

Videos of the stunts, produced by Higby, O’Keefe, and Rubin, make the broad claim that Minnesota’s voucher system, which allows for a registered voter to “vouch” for the identities of up to eight unregistered individuals living in the same precinct, is a natural source for fraud. 

In the videos from O’Keefe and Higby, the pair dressed in what O’Keefe described as “full traditional Muslim attire” and adopted fake accents to impersonate registered voters and ask if they could vouch for several friends or family members. Rubin, in partnership with the Citizen Justice League, also released a similar video in which he attempted to vouch for people he told a poll worker were “from the Gaza Strip” and “members of Hamas.” At each polling location visited, O'Keefe, Higby, and Rubin were provided instructions on how to participate in the voucher system. The content creators either left the polling location or the video cut out following that conversation.

Following the release of the videos, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon issued a statement announcing an investigation into their “outrageous and totally unacceptable” conduct, stating the stunt had placed them in “legal jeopardy” and noting that “poll workers immediately reported these visits.” Information provided by the secretary of state’s office also noted that “use of the [voter vouching] process is very rare” and accounted for “less than 0.6% of votes cast” during the 2024 general election. Hamline University professor of political science and legal studies David Schultz told Reuters that “vouching does not eliminate the other legal requirements for registering and voting,” noting also that “Minnesota had allowed vouching for nearly 50 years, with no credible evidence that the practice had produced widespread voter fraud.” Reuters’ fact check further clarified: “Registered voters in Minnesota can vouch for the residence of others in their precinct but the potential voter still needs to ​meet all the other requirements for voter registration according to state law.”

Despite the dubious legality of these stunts and their misleading framing of the voter voucher system, the right-wing media ecosystem rushed to promote the new videos. 

Podcaster Benny Johnson interviewed Rubin and called the voter voucher system an “insane rule.” Podcast host and former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino aired a portion of Rubin’s video and called him a “genius,” adding, “Have we ever been at a time in American history when we needed a piece of legislation as badly as we need the SAVE Act right now?” Podcaster Patrick Bet-David aired a portion of O’Keefe’s video on his show, leading panelist Adam Sosnick to comment that “the citizen journalists out there” were “exposing the ridiculousness that's going on in our country.” 

While interviewing Higby, Newsmax2 host Ike Wingate called the voter voucher system “backwards” and praised Higby, saying, “You've exposed the ridiculousness of it.” The Gateway Pundit also praised O’Keefe’s videos, stating that “the undercover team’s investigation appears to confirm how easily it [same-day voter registration] can be exploited.”  

Days after Michigan’s August 4 primary election, O’Keefe released a video in which an unnamed operative from O’Keefe Media Group used the name of two Iranian nationals who were registered to vote in Michigan at separate polling places to see if they would be offered ballots without having to present an ID. 

O’Keefe characterized the men whose names they used as “noncitizens from Iran,” and noted that both men had previously been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and placed on the Department of Homeland Security’s “worst of the worst list” for past sex crimes. O’Keefe said the operative’s plan was to “see if this noncitizen from Iran would actually be able to vote if we simply stated his name and we told them that we were a noncitizen.” At each polling place, poll workers confirmed to the O'Keefe Media Group operative that the name provided was registered and eligible to vote at that polling place, with the video cutting away after the interaction. 

Evoking the right-wing boogeyman of noncitizen voting, O’Keefe claimed that one of the men whose name was used by an operative in the video had voted in at least three federal elections. Despite right-wing media’s fixation on noncitizen voting, instances are “extraordinarily rare” according to the American Immigration Council. Furthermore, DHS’ “own employees” have acknowledged that numbers the department previously touted for noncitizen voter registrations “were inflated,” according to NPR. 

During the video, O’Keefe claimed, “We're providing the evidence to assist the Department of Justice,” and said he sent his findings to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon directly.

Another of O’Keefe’s election stunts took him to Anchorage, Alaska, where he identified himself as Brian Murkowski, the brother of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), to “see if they let us vote in his name” — though O’Keefe clarified that “we’re not going to actually vote, we’re not impersonating him, we’re just saying his name and asking questions.” The purpose of the stunt, according to O’Keefe, was to “go there and see if I can get offered his ballot, with no identification, just by signing a piece of paper,” and he criticized Murkowski's opposition to the SAVE America Act.

O’Keefe was offered a questioned ballot, which is a provisional ballot that Alaska provides to people who do not have ID or are not on the register or need to update information. In order to fill out a questioned ballot, voters “must provide their first and last name, their address and at least one identifier – such as a Social Security Number, AK State ID Card, or AK Driver’s license.” Additionally, the voter must sign a document verifying the information is correct “under penalty of perjury.” The questioned ballots are later reviewed by a bipartisan board.

An unnamed O’Keefe Media Group operative visited a separate polling location as well, providing the name of Karina Waller, the Alaska state director within Murkowski’s office, and was also directed to complete a questioned ballot.

Toward the end of the video, O’Keefe read from a statement received from Sen. Murkowski’s office prior to the release of the video noting that “voter impersonation is a crime and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

As the 2026 midterms approach, right-wing media and the Trump administration appear to have ramped up their efforts to undermine the midterm elections — often invoking long-standing and repeatedly debunked conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud in the U.S. and typically relying on one-off incidents and hypotheticals that are often exaggerated or misleading.

Content from right-wing creators fuels election misinformation narratives throughout right-wing media that in turn help create justifications for extreme measures to subvert elections, including potentially stationing ICE at polling stations and declaring a “national emergency” that would grant President Donald Trump further power over the midterms. For his part, Trump has argued, “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”