Minneapolis Police Open Probe Into Reports Ilhan Omar's Allies Harvested Piles of Ballots for Money ...
Wednesday September 30, 2020
Undercover
videos published by Project Veritas over the weekend allege, citing a
Somali political operative, that special ballot harvesters were hired in
the community in July for the Democrats to take advantage of elderly
and other vulnerable community members.
Ward 6 was treated as the heart of
Minneapolis' Somali community and hence the personal political base of
the Somali-born naturalised Omar, it has been claimed.
As a person alleged to be Mohamed is also heard in the video saying "money is everything, money is the king of this world", Republicans say that could indicate a cash-for-ballot scheme was being exploited, though there's no direct evidence in the videos of money being exchanged for ballots.
Following the Project Veritas reports, President Trump
instantly took to Twitter demanding that the Justice Department
scrupulously look into Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota for
alleged "ballot harvesting".
Mohamed later struck back
accusing O'Keefe on Twitter of spreading "fake news" and claiming it is
not him in the Snapchat videos Project Veritas claimed it obtained from
early July.
Jeremy Slevin, senior communications director for
Omar, weighed in on the debate claiming "the amount of truth to this
story is equal to the amount Donald Trump paid in taxes of ten out of
the last fifteen years: zero".
He slammed the Project Veritas
investigation, saying that "amplifying a coordinated right-wing campaign
to delegitimise a free and fair election this fall undermines our
democracy".
The aforementioned councilman Jamal Osman likewise called out the allegations, writing at length on Facebook:
"Throughout
my campaign, I let my staff, volunteers, and supporters know my values
including the type of race I wanted to run", he asserted portraying his
campaign as "positive and ethical" and incompatible with "behaviour that
contradicts these values".
In the meantime, so-called "ballot
collection" is legally permitted in most US states. In Minnesota, a key
swing state this year, a third party is entitled to collect and deliver
no more than three absentee ballots.
The widespread practice
remains the subject of a fierce partisan debate, with the GOP suspecting
that collecting ballots, along with mail-in voting, likely come with
back doors for fraud.
Donald Trump and his administration have
energetically called to restrict the schemes as mail-in voting is
gaining momentum during this tumultuous time, for the practices not to
unlawfully play into his Democratic rivals’ hands.
The showdown
over the legality of such practices has recently seen Republicans and
Democrats even square off in lawsuits over third party involvement in
the collection of ballots in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Minnesota.
Minneapolis Police Open Probe Into Reports Ilhan Omar's Allies Harvested Piles of Ballots for Money ...
The politicians named in the allegations have denied them. Minneapolis police have started investigating reports of voter fraud after an undercover video emerged allegedly featuring associates of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar collecting absentee ballot