A woman in California was accused of registering her dog to vote and submitting ballots in its name.
California Woman Accused of Registering Her Dog to Vote Faces 5 Felony Charges
A woman in California faces five felony charges after being accused of registering her dog to vote and posting ballots in its name in two state elections.
The woman in question is Laura Lee Yourex, a 62-year-old in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Yourex cast two separate ballots in her dog Maya Jean Yourex's name, according to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Laura Lee Yourex registered her dog Maya Jean Yourex to vote and even successfully cast one ballot in the animal's name.
The first was successfully counted in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election because proof of residence or ID weren't required, according to USA Today. The second ballot was challenged and rejected in the 2022 primary because proof of residence was required since Maya was classified as a first-time voter in a federal election (to be clear, Maya was not a legitimate voter).
Maya Jean Yourex, a dog, was able to cast a ballot in the state of California.
According to the DA's Office, Yourex faces the following felony charges: one count of perjury, one count of procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, two counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote and one count of registering a non-existent person to vote.
She could face up to six years in prison.
The DA's Office investigation led to enough evidence to charge Yourex with the aforementioned felonies.
Laura Lee Yourex posted a photo on social media of her dog wearing an 'I Voted' sticker.
Evidence included the fact that Yourex had posted a photo of Maya wearing an "I Voted" sticker on social media in 2022. She had also posted a photo of the ballot Maya received in 2024, after the dog had passed.
According to ABC News, Yourex herself told the Orange County Registrar of Voters' Office about registering her dog, with the registrar understandably contacting the DA's Office as a result.
The DA's Office asked the public to contact them if they have any information on "election-related irregularities." You can call the Orange County District Attorney’s Election Fraud Hotline at 657-707-4048 or email 2024.elections@ocdapa.org.
Laura Lee Yourex self-reported to the Orange County Registrar of Voters' Office.
Yourex made her first court appearance in September, with her attorney claiming that she registered her dog to vote in order to make a point about the electoral system.
Attorney Jaime Coulter said outside court, as reported by NBC Los Angeles, "Laura Yourex sincerely regrets her unwise attempt to expose flaws in our state voting system, intending to improve it by demonstrating that even a dog can be registered to vote."
County officials suggested that they could avoid this type of problem in the future by cross-checking voter registration information with animal licensing records.
OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen said, "The fact that a dog can register and voted twice tells you the system is not working, and it's broken. If we can cross reference the addresses and names, if there's a name that could be suspicious, we can say, 'Wait a minute. Let's flag this.'"