Undercover journalist James O’Keefe released video on Thursday that he says shows an Anchorage, Alaska, poll worker offering him Senator Lisa Murkowski’s brother’s ballot without requiring identification — prompting the senator to call for his prosecution.
The footage, posted to social media, was shot on Tuesday, August 18, the day of Alaska’s primary election. In the video, O’Keefe approaches a polling station and gives the name Brian Murkowski, the senator’s brother. When he says he has no ID, he asks whether Brian could still vote.
“Absolutely possible!” the poll worker responds, according to the video.
O’Keefe said he did not actually cast a ballot or sign Brian Murkowski’s name. “I did not check in as Brian Murkowski, cast a ballot, or sign his name. We documented what happened when I gave his name, said I had no ID, and asked whether Brian could still vote,” he said in a statement accompanying the release.
The video also alleges that the same Anchorage polling place offered the ballot of Lisa Murkowski’s state director, Karina Waller, without ID on primary day.
Murkowski, a Republican often criticized by the right as a “RINO,” was one of the senators who opposed the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voter ID nationwide. The senator’s office pushed back, saying she has consistently supported photo ID requirements.
“Senator Murkowski has consistently supported the requirement of photo ID to vote, and earlier this month, she voted in favor of a separate measure on the Senate floor to do just that,” Murkowski said in a statement, according to a press release shared by O’Keefe.
She continued: “However, the SAVE America Act is an overly burdensome, one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington.”
Murkowski then turned her attention to O’Keefe’s tactics. “In any case, voter impersonation is a crime and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.
O’Keefe’s track record
The Alaska video is the latest in a series of undercover stings by O’Keefe, who has built a career on hidden-camera investigations of political and social institutions. Earlier this year, O’Keefe, Cam Higby, and Muckraker’s Josh Rubin went undercover dressed in Muslim garb to expose Minnesota’s “voter vouching” system, which allows voters to vouch for others at the polls. Minnesota’s Democratic Secretary of State, Steve Simon, suggested O’Keefe and his colleagues should be prosecuted for exposing the state’s system.
O’Keefe’s Alaska video comes amid a heated national debate over voter ID laws. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have pushed for stricter identification requirements, arguing they are necessary to prevent voter fraud. Democrats and voting rights groups counter that such laws disproportionately disenfranchise minority and low-income voters.
Murkowski’s opposition to the SAVE America Act puts her at odds with many in her party. She is one of a handful of Republican senators who have broken with the party line on voting legislation, arguing for a more flexible approach that gives states discretion rather than a federal mandate.
The Gateway Pundit, which first reported on the video, noted that Murkowski’s statement did not directly address the specific incident at the Anchorage polling station, but her call for prosecution of O’Keefe suggests she believes his actions crossed a legal line.
Legal experts say that asking for a ballot under someone else’s name — even without casting it — could in some jurisdictions be considered attempted voter impersonation, though charges are rarely brought in such cases. O’Keefe’s defenders argue that his investigations are a form of journalism that exposes vulnerabilities in the election system.
The Alaska Division of Elections has not yet commented on the video. Reached by The Gateway Pundit, the Anchorage polling station where the incident allegedly occurred declined to comment.
O’Keefe’s video has already sparked a firestorm on social media, with supporters hailing him as a watchdog and critics accusing him of stoking baseless fears about election integrity.
“This is exactly the kind of thing that erodes public confidence in our elections,” said one election law expert who asked not to be named. “Whether or not it leads to criminal charges, the optics are damaging.”
Murkowski, who is facing a tough reelection fight, has been a frequent target of the right for her votes on issues like the SAVE America Act and her support for impeachment of Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot. Her call for prosecution of O’Keefe is likely to further energize her critics.
As of this writing, O’Keefe has not responded to Murkowski’s statement. In his social media post, he said: “We documented what happened when I gave his name, said I had no ID, and asked whether Brian could still vote.” He did not say whether he plans to release additional footage.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/08/watch-james-okeefe-offered-senator-lisa-murkowskis-brothers/