Thank You, James O’Keefe, For Proving How Pointless Voter ID Laws Are

James O’Keefe, the 27-year-old made famous for pretending to be a pimp going into ACORN facilities and secretly filming the incidents, has released a new undercover video that tries to demonstrate how easy it is to commit voter impersonation fraud. But instead, the video ends up proving the exact opposite.

O’Keefe’s video shows individuals in polling stations throughout New Hampshire attempting to vote using the name of recently deceased persons in this week’s primary election. While his video shows smooth-sailing for every attempt, the reality is that the actions were so suspicious, they prompted a voting supervisor to call the police. Before O’Keefe released his edited version of the attempts, news outlets were already printing reports on this suspicious behavior.

As a result, O’Keefe has demonstrated that attempting to systematically rig an election via voter impersonation fraud is not feasible at the scale necessary without being caught. Instead, proposed Voter ID laws would only make it harder for legitimate citizens to be able to vote. One election law expert told TPM that O’Keefe’s next video should “show how easy it is to rob a bank with a plastic gun.” While such a move could be done a few times, there are already laws against it—just like laws against voter impersonation—and such a person would get caught pretty quickly.

Of course, someone attempting to rob a bank with a plastic gun to prove what they perceive as a legal weakness would likely run afoul of the law—and it looks like O’Keefe’s attempts at voter fraud are no different.

The Boston Herald is now reporting that O’Keefe’s operation is under investigation by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office for voter fraud. Legal experts also said they believe O’Keefe violated federal law by knowingly procuring ballots through fraudulent methods. And the mayor of Manchester, Ted Gatas, called for O’Keefe’s associates in the video to be “arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” This is all on top of analysis from New Hampshire election officials that O’Keefe may have violated the state’s wiretapping and eavesdropping statues by recording an election official without their permission.

In summary, the associates in O’Keefe’s video successfully impersonated dead individuals and violated the law to procure a handful of illegal ballots in an election where hundreds of thousands of people voted. The police were then called due to their suspicious behavior. They are now under investigation by the State’s Attorney General for committing voter fraud, and have possibly violated federal election law and state wiretapping law. The pointlessness of stringent photo ID requirements could not have been better illustrated.

Keep it up, O’Keefe.

Tobin is the advocacy and communications manager at Campus Progress.

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