O'Keefe Video Nabs Va. Dem's Son in Voter Fraud Scandal

Patrick Moran quits father's campaign after caught discussing ways to cheat
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2012 6:13 AM CDT
Updated Oct 25, 2012 7:30 AM CDT
O'Keefe Video Nabs Va. Dem's Son in Voter Fraud Scandal
Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 5, 2010.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A Democratic congressman from Virginia is in the midst of a voter fraud scandal sparked by a James O'Keefe video, the Hill reports. Rep. Jim Moran's son Patrick has stepped down from his father's campaign after he was caught discussing secretly casting votes in place of people who weren't planning to visit the polls. "There will be a lot of voter protection, so, if they just have, you know, the utility bill or bank statement—bank statement would obviously be tough ... but faking a utility bill would be easy enough," Patrick Moran, who worked as field director for the campaign, says in the video.

The tape was released by Project Veritas, run by O'Keefe, whose previous videos include a much-publicized "sting" on NPR. The Moran video, however, "may do something that no other O’Keefe video thus far has accomplished: Be legit," notes Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon. A review of raw footage shows that there are "no misleading editing tricks" here. The video shows an O'Keefe ally telling the younger Moran that he has a list of inactive Democratic voters and that a friend wants to fake their votes. Moran at first says it's not a good idea, but when the operative pushes his case, Moran "readily dishes out tips about how to commit identity theft and pose as other people," Seitz-Wald writes. It's not a unique incident in the swing state, notes the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Also yesterday, the state Board of Elections asked AG Ken Cuccinelli to investigate GOP efforts to destroy voter registrations. (More Virginia stories.)

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