The Minneapolis Police Department announced Monday they are investigating a Project Veritas report that alleged Minneapolis Ward 6 was rife with voter fraud and ballot harvesting.
“ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD BEING EVALUATED. The MPD is aware of the allegations of vote harvesting. We are in the process of looking into the validity of those statements. No further information is available at this time on this,” a tweet from the Minneapolis Police said.
ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD BEING EVALUATED. ✅ The MPD is aware of the allegations of vote harvesting. We are in the process of looking into the validity of those statements. No further information is available at this time on this.
— Minneapolis Police (@MinneapolisPD) September 28, 2020
The announcement comes following allegations from Project Veritas that claim the Ward 6 city council special election race was the victim of both ballot harvesting and a pay-for-play type scheme where voters were allegedly paid in cash for their ballots.
Project Veritas also claimed that Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is involved. (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Compares Trump’s Presidential Victory To Maduro’s Scandal-Plagued Election)
President Donald Trump took to Twitter calling for a review of the allegations.
“This is totally illegal. Hope that the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota has this, and other of her many misdeeds, under serious review??? If not, why not??? We will win Minnesota because of her, and law enforcement. Saved Minneapolis & Iron O Range!”
This is totally illegal. Hope that the U.S. Attorney in Minnesota has this, and other of her many misdeeds, under serious review??? If not, why not??? We will win Minnesota because of her, and law enforcement. Saved Minneapolis & Iron O Range! https://t.co/yete31P680
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2020
Project Veritas reportedly obtained a Snapchat video allegedly showing Liban Mohamed, who reportedly worked on Jamal Osman’s campaign for Ward 6, flashing numerous absentee ballots, all allegedly filled out for Osman. He went on to win the election.
Ward 6 elections have previously come under scrutiny with allegations of voter fraud appearing in 2017 after candidate Mohamud Noor alleged that at least a hundred voters cast ballots in the election despite not living in the district, according to Alphanews. However, a Hennepin County judge dismissed the suit for lack of evidence, according to the Star Tribune.
According to Minnesota law, ballot collectors, or “election judges” could only collect three ballots for those who claim to need assistance, in order to avoid the practice of ballot harvesting.
Judge Thomas A. Gilligan, Jr. of the Second Judicial District in Ramsey county issued a consent decree in April which permitted ballot collectors to collect more than the three ballots originally allowed.
The Minnesota GOP lost a suit against the state claiming that Gilligan’s decree allowing ballot collectors to collect more than three ballots would lead to voter fraud, according to Fox News.
BREAKING: Minnesota court DENIES @GOP effort to block ballot collection and voter assistance in Minnesota.
Victory for @DSCC, @DCCC and voting rights in Minnesota.
Follow all of our cases at https://t.co/bRR5ZvzbJ9 pic.twitter.com/2BfU3wFvkl
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) August 11, 2020
The Minnesota Supreme Court eventually overturned the August decision, ruling that ballot harvesting is illegal.
It is unclear whether those allegedly involved in the reported Project Veritas ballot collection scheme collected the excess ballots while the practice was permitted.
