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Is Tulsi Gabbard pushing Project Veritas attacks on Ilhan Omar? Here's why she supports ballot harvesting ban

Gabbard in a recent tweet said, 'Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It's not a partisan issue'

The New York-based right-wing activist group Project Veritas had uploaded a video on their channel claiming that it contained the results of an investigation into allegations against Democrat Rep Ilhan Omar in Minnesota of ballot harvesting ahead of the 2020 election. Minnesota is a key swing state in the presidential race.

In the clip uploaded by the group, it shows an operative, Liban Mohamed, talking about collecting hundreds of ballots. “Numbers do not lie. Numbers do not lie. … You can see my car is full. All these here are absentee ballots. Can’t you see? Look at all these; my car is full,” Mohamed can be heard saying in the video. It also contained testimony from Omar Jamal, a whistleblower who called Ilhan’s alleged ballot harvesting an “open secret". “She [Ilhan Omar] will do anything that she can do to get elected and she [Ilhan Omar] has hundreds of people on the streets doing that,” said Jamal. James O’Keefe is the founder of Project Veritas.

Now Rep Tulsi Gabbard, quoting her September 19 tweet, said: “Project Veritas offers further evidence of the need to ban ballot harvesting. It's not a partisan issue. It's been abused to help both R & D candidates, including in North Carolina & California. Please help by telling your congressional rep to pass our bipartisan bill HR8285.” In the September 19 video, she can be heard saying, “It is important to remember that the strength of our democracy lies in the integrity of our elections, that every one of us has to have faith that our vote will count. But right now there are still many states in our country that allow for something called ballot harvesting.”

Gabbard explains that the system allows third parties to collect and deliver ballots for others and how it has led to fraud abuse by those who can tamper ballots in order to sway an election. She continued, “Our vote is our voice. So, whether in the midst of a pandemic, as we are now, where mail-in voting is likely drastically increase , or even in a normal election, no one, should get in between a voter and the ballot box.” She added, “Now, to protect the integrity of our vote in our elections, I’ve introduced legislation called the Election Fraud Prevention Act with my friend Rep Rodney Davis. Our bipartisan bill protects the chain of custody for every one of our ballots by prohibiting funding from going to states that allow this practice of ballot harvesting to occur. This bill will actually encourage states to stop this practice that’s ripe for fraud and that poses as a serious threat to the integrity of our elections.”

Besides posting the clip, she wrote: “Banning ballot harvesting is not a partisan issue. It's been used & abused in states like North Carolina and California & is ripe for fraud. That's why I intro'd HR8285, the Election Fraud Prevention Act w/ @RodneyDavis - to protect the integrity of our elections & our democracy.” She also tweeted: “Congress needs to pass our bipartisan bill to ban ballot harvesting so no one can exploit our sacred right to vote.”

After Gabbard's recent tweet about Project Veritas, a lot of people commented on it. One user said, “I really thought you were above giving any credibility to those liars. James O'Keefe might possibly be the most dishonest political operative in the country.” Another said, “It is NOT an issue. It’s something Republicans decided to turn into a spooky boogeyman because they got smoked in California in the 2018 midterms. Ppl largely don’t know what it is, so the GOP misinformation works.” One commented, “Project Veritas is a right-wing hit job outfit with zero credibility.”

But there were a few who backed her. One said, “Thank you Tulsi.” Another said, “Thank you, Tulsi!  Election integrity is so important!  We need reassurance that we can trust our elections.  You are my political hero!”  One concurred, “Thank you Tulsi for bringing this forward in a non-partisan way.  We need your voice to protect the very fragile voting system.”

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