A Costa Mesa woman faces five felony charges after prosecutors said she registered her dog to vote and submitted two mail-in ballots under the canine’s name.
Laura Lee Yourex, 62, was charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office with perjury, procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, casting a ballot when not entitled to vote, and registering a non-existent person to vote, the office said. Prosecutors said she submitted ballots under the name Maya Jean Yourex in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election.
The DA’s office said the recall ballot was counted, while the primary ballot was rejected. The matter came to election officials’ attention after Yourex reported herself in October of last year to the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ Office, which then referred the case to the district attorney. Investigators also found social media posts documenting the dog’s purported voting activity, including a January 2022 photo of the dog wearing an "I Voted" sticker and posed with a ballot, the office said.
The charges filed against Yourex are felonies that carry potential criminal penalties if she is convicted. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office released the details of the case as it proceeded through the charging stage; court dates and additional filings were not immediately available.
California election law prohibits registering fictitious persons or submitting ballots on behalf of people not legally entitled to vote. Mail-in ballots are processed by county election offices, which review signatures and registration records; in this instance, election officials determined that one of the mail ballots submitted under the dog’s name could not be accepted while another was initially counted.
Prosecutors said the investigation relied in part on online posts that indicated the animal had been registered and that ballots had been submitted in its name. The DA’s office did not disclose who discovered the registration or provide additional details about how the recall ballot came to be accepted.
The case joins a small number of incidents nationally in which nonhuman entities have been submitted for voter registration or ballots have been cast in names that do not correspond to eligible voters. County and state election officials routinely review voter rolls and work with law enforcement when potential fraud is identified.
Yourex’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The charges will move through the Orange County court system, where prosecutors must prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt or the defendant may contest the accusations through the legal process.