James O’Keefe walked into an Anchorage polling place with no ID and walked out with a story that should be front-page news across the country.
The senator whose name got pulled into this investigation has been blocking the very legislation that could fix it.
And what O’Keefe’s team caught on hidden camera during Alaska’s primary is going to make a lot of people very angry.
What O’Keefe Actually Found at the Polling Place
James O’Keefe, founder of O’Keefe Media Group, visited an Anchorage polling location during Alaska’s primary election and gave election workers the name Brian Murkowski.
Brian Murkowski is identified in O’Keefe’s report as the brother of US Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
A worker found the name on the voter list and confirmed O’Keefe was at the correct polling location.
O’Keefe then told them he had left his ID at home and asked whether he could still vote.
“Absolutely possible,” one worker responded.
Another worker then told O’Keefe he could cast a ballot without presenting identification. “You can vote if you’d like to,” the worker said.
O’Keefe asked whether he could fill out the ballot paperwork and then vote. “Yes, sir,” the worker replied.
O’Keefe did not cast the ballot. He said Brian Murkowski no longer lives in Alaska but remains on the state’s voter rolls.
The team did not stop there. O’Keefe’s group also tested the system using the name of Karina Waller, identified as Murkowski’s state director. At a separate Anchorage polling place, a woman working with O’Keefe gave Waller’s name and said she did not have identification. A worker confirmed the name was registered at that location and offered her a ballot.
Under Title 15 of the Alaska Statutes, a question ballot can be issued when a voter cannot provide a sufficient form of identification. According to O’Keefe Media Group, that ballot is still submitted as a voting ballot, though it may be subject to further review. The voter fills it out in the same manner as any other voter.
Two names. Two polling places. Two offers of a ballot with no identification required.
Murkowski’s Office Fires Back — at O’Keefe
Before O’Keefe published the video, Murkowski’s office responded to his team. Joe Plesha, Press Secretary for Murkowski, told OMG that the senator consistently supports the requirement of photo ID to vote and voted in favor of a separate measure on the Senate floor to do just that.
But Plesha’s statement went further than defending Murkowski’s record. He called out O’Keefe directly.
Plesha told OMG: “However, the SAVE America Act is an overly burdensome, one size fits all mandate from Washington. It would be impossible to implement in time for this election and would likely disenfranchise thousands of eligible Alaskan voters. In any case, voter impersonation is a crime and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
That last line is the one worth sitting with for a moment. The senator’s press secretary is threatening prosecution against a journalist for demonstrating that the system can be exploited — while simultaneously defending the senator’s vote against the legislation that would close the gap.
Murkowski has consistently opposed the SAVE America Act. In March, she opposed even beginning Senate debate on the legislation, though the chamber voted 51-48 to move forward.
What the SAVE America Act Would Actually Do
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act — the SAVE America Act — is a commonsense protection of election integrity that requires documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and a photo ID at the time of voting.
It would also require states to take ongoing steps to ensure only US citizens are registered, including establishing programs to identify non-citizens and remove them from voter rolls.
The legislation passed the House on February 11, 2026, and has been a centerpiece of President Trump’s push to ensure that only American citizens decide American elections. Trump has repeatedly demanded that congressional Republicans pass the bill.
Murkowski has not been quiet about her opposition. She published an op-ed declaring her position, writing, “While I support the bill’s core tenets — ensuring that only American citizens vote and requiring identification when voting — I remain opposed to it.”
Her stated reason is that the bill’s requirements would be difficult to implement in Alaska, particularly for voters in rural areas and for Alaska Natives who rely on tribal identification cards that would not qualify for voter registration under the legislation.
But O’Keefe’s hidden-camera report cuts directly against that framing. The senator is not blocking the SAVE America Act because Alaska’s election system is airtight. She is blocking it while Alaska’s election system demonstrably allows people to obtain ballots under other people’s names without showing a single piece of identification.
The question ballot provision in Alaska law exists for a reason — to accommodate voters who genuinely forgot their ID. But when that provision allows someone to walk in, give a name that is not their own, claim they left their wallet in the car, and receive an offer of a ballot at two separate polling places, that is not an accommodation. That is a gap wide enough to drive a truck through.
And the person blocking the federal fix is the senator whose family name and staff member’s name were pulled off the voter rolls to demonstrate the gap exists.
The Broader Pattern Nobody Wants to Talk About
Murkowski’s opposition to the SAVE America Act is not a one-time thing. She has a long record of breaking with the America First agenda at the moments that matter most, and she has done so repeatedly on election-related legislation.
The establishment argument against the SAVE America Act always follows the same script: it is too burdensome, it will disenfranchise voters, it is a one-size-fits-all mandate. What that argument never addresses is the vulnerability on the other side of the ledger — what happens when the system can be gamed.
O’Keefe’s video did not establish that a questioned ballot issued under another person’s name would definitely survive the review process. What it did establish is that presenting identification was not required before election workers offered the questioned-ballot option at either location.
That distinction matters. But it does not rescue Murkowski’s position.
The review process for questioned ballots is not a guarantee. It is a backstop. And a backstop that depends on someone catching the fraud after the fact is not the same as a system that prevents the fraud from occurring in the first place.
The SAVE America Act is designed to move the protection upstream — to the point of registration and the point of voting — rather than relying on after-the-fact review processes that may or may not catch problems.
Millions of Americans watched the 2020 election play out with last-minute changes to voting rules made under cover of COVID, private money flooding election offices, and a public-health and media apparatus that worked to shape the information environment before voters went to the polls. The concerns those Americans raised have never been fully addressed. The SAVE America Act represents a concrete, legislated response to the question of who is casting ballots in federal elections.
Murkowski’s answer to that response is that it is too hard to implement. O’Keefe’s answer is a video of poll workers offering ballots to someone who gave a name that was not his own.
The voters who sent President Trump back to Washington in 2024 gave him a clear mandate: protect election integrity and ensure that American elections are decided by American citizens. The SAVE America Act delivers on that mandate. Senators who block it while their own state’s primary demonstrates exactly why the legislation is needed are going to have a hard time explaining that position to constituents who watched the video.
Brian Murkowski’s name was on the voter rolls. He reportedly no longer lives in Alaska. A journalist walked in, said the name, said he had no ID, and was told he could vote.
That is not a hypothetical vulnerability. That is a documented one.
Sources: Breitbart, “O’Keefe Exposes Alaska Voting Loophole as Murkowski Opposes SAVE America Act,” August 20, 2026; O’Keefe Media Group video report; Alaska Statutes Title 15, Section 15.15.225; Bipartisan Policy Center, “Six Things to Know About the SAVE America Act,” updated July 2026.
