In his latest moronic, almost certainly illegal right wing stunt, fraudster James O’Keefe scoured obituary listings for the names of recently deceased New Hampshire residents, then sent his operatives to polling stations where they tried to obtain ballots for those dead voters.

The Daily Caller is hyping this bogus story as if it were Watergate II, calling it a “bombshell:” VIDEO: NH poll workers shown handing out ballots in dead peoples’ names.

O’Keefe’s partner in fraud, Andrew Breitbart, is also hyping this fake outrage: Breitbart.tv » Dead Man Voting: O’Keefe Exposes Troubling Ballot Policies In New Hampshire.

How’s Institutional Left going to respond to @JamesOkeefeIII’s exposure of how easy it is to Cheat-N-Vote®: thedc.com/xsmLmj @MMFA

— AndrewBreitbart (@AndrewBreitbart) January 11, 2012

O’Keefe’s brigade of right wing numbskulls was actually caught in the act at one polling place: Would-be dead man voter stopped at polls.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A mystery man trying to vote in the New Hampshire primary using a dead man’s name got caught by an eagle-eyed voting supervisor in Manchester, then disappeared before police could corral him.

“We take a lot of pride in this primary,” Gloria Pilotte, the Ward 9 supervisor who stopped the voter fraud, told the Herald. “I’m very confident about the way we do this in New Hampshire.”

The unknown man, dressed in a suit and tie, did not say why he was trying to vote as the recently deceased person and would not identify any group he was representing.

“He said ‘You’ll soon find out,’ ” Pilotte tells the Herald.

But in the closed loop of the wingnut echo chamber, the fact that no actual voter fraud was demonstrated, and that no one has ever even been accused of a scheme like O’Keefe’s, will be completely irrelevant. This is all they need to start screaming that left wing “voter fraud” is now a proven fact.

LGF author Lawhawk points out the relevant federal statute; note that to commit a crime, it isn’t necessary to actually cast a vote. The simple act of procuring the ballots under false pretenses is clearly illegal:

42 USC § 1973GG–10. CRIMINAL PENALTIES relevant parts being section (2)(b)):

A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office- knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by—

(A) the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held; or
(B) the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held,

shall be fined in accordance with title 18 (which fines shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury, miscellaneous receipts (pursuant to section 3302 of title 31), notwithstanding any other law), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.