Last Thursday, on October 15th, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in California announced that Laura Lee Yourex had been required to fund the establishment of anti-election fraud billboards as part of a settlement. This was due to illegally registering her dog as a voter and casting votes in two elections in the dog’s name.
Last September, 64-year-old Costa Mesa resident Yourex faced multiple serious charges, including perjury, submitting false or forged documents for filing, two counts of voting without the right to vote, and one count of registering a non-existent person as a voter.
On April 10th of this year, the office dropped four felony charges and reduced another to a misdemeanor. On the same day, Yourex pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of knowingly registering a “non-existent person” as a voter. As she fulfilled all the terms of the plea agreement, the case was dismissed on October 13th.
As part of the plea agreement, Yourex was ordered to pay $1,500 for the placement of four billboards along Highways 55 and 22 in Orange County, to combat election fraud until the midterm election day on November 3rd.
The billboards will feature a photo of her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, posing with her ballot that she had previously shared on social media. They will also display the Election Fraud Hotline of the District Attorney’s Office. The signs will read: “Don’t act like a dog,” “Election fraud is a crime,” and warn against voting without proper voting rights, or face prosecution by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Maya Jean Yourex, the dog, had received mail-in ballots three times and had “voted” twice. In the 2021 gubernatorial recall election, her “vote was successfully counted,” with 61.9% of voters opposing Governor Newsom’s recall.
According to the California Election Code, individuals must fill out and submit a Voter Registration Affidavit to register to vote, which includes the voter’s name, residence, mailing address, date of birth, party preference, and a declaration of U.S. citizenship. By signing the affidavit, the signer agrees to the legal responsibility of committing perjury.
California law also stipulates that citizens do not need to provide proof of residence or identification when registering to vote or voting in state elections, but first-time federal election voters must provide proof of residence and registration information. Therefore, the ballot cast in the name of “Maya Jean” in the 2022 primary election was questioned and rejected by the election center.
In January 2022, Yourex posted a photo on social media showing her dog with an “I voted” sticker posing with a ballot. A post in October 2024 again showed the pet’s dog tag and a mail-in ballot, captioned “Maya is still receiving her ballots” – the dog had passed away by then.
On October 28, 2024, the Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office received a report from the County Voter Registration Office, stating that a resident had confessed to registering their dog as a voter and voting twice using mail-in ballots sent to the dog. Following an investigation, sufficient evidence was found to bring criminal charges against the dog’s owner.