North Ramsey News

Republicans in Minnesota are calling for an investigation into alleged voter fraud after a video surfaced of a man bragging about having a car full of absentee ballots.

The video, posted by a group called Project Veritas, showed the man bragging about having hundreds of ballots in July for then-candidate for Minneapolis City Council Jamal Osman. He won the special election the next month. Project Veritas claimed the man recorded himself while collecting the ballots from senior citizens in the city's Somali community, ballots they believe were blank and then filled out by the man or others. 

Minnesota state law limits the number of ballots a person can turn into an election office to three. However, earlier this year an ongoing legal battle temporarily lifted the limitations, which fell during the time of the special election in August. 

Project Veritas also alleged in the video that the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar knew about what was happening but didn't stop it. Both the DFL and Omar's office denied that claim saying there was "zero" truth to it. 

"If this video is accurate, the MN DFL has been engaged in widespread voter fraud and has been manipulating elderly immigrants," Jennifer Carnahan, chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, said in a statement to TwinCities.com. 

Carnahan is also asking for Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to investigate further. 

However the state's Democratic Party is discrediting the video's source, calling Project Veritas a "far-right propaganda outfit" that they said was known for "lying, entrapment and breaking the law."

"At a time when President Trump is trying to use fake claims of voter fraud to subvert a free and fair election, anyone that uses completely verified information from a right-wing propaganda group to bolster the president's bogus claims is doing real harm to our democracy," Minnesota DFL chairman Ken Martin told TwinCities.com in a statement.