In yet another sign of the California decline, an Orange County woman is facing felony charges after she allegedly registered her dog to vote and voted twice in the dog’s name in statewide elections.
According to District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office, the woman, 62-year-old Laura Lee Yourex, successfully voted in 2021 by mail-in ballot in the Gavin Newsom gubernatorial recall election. She allegedly tried to do so again in the 2022 primary, but her ballot was rejected:
A Costa Mesa woman has been charged with five felonies for illegally registering her dog to vote and casting ballots in her dog’s name in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election. The dog’s vote was successfully counted in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election but was rejected in the 2022 primary.Laura Lee Yourex, 62, of Costa Mesa, has been charged with one felony count of perjury, one felony count of procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, two felony counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote, and one felony count of registering a non-existent person to vote. Yourex is scheduled to be arraigned at the Stephen K. Tamura West Justice Center in Westminster on September 9, 2025, in Department W12. She faces a maximum sentence of six years in state prison if convicted on all counts.
This wasn’t a case of a county election official becoming suspicious and alerting the DA’s office of their suspicions, however. According to Spitzer’s press release, an official only notified their office after Yourex allegedly “self-reported” what she’s alleged to have done:
On October 28, 2024, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office was contacted by the Orange County Registrar of Voter’s Office about a resident who self-reported that she had registered her dog to vote and had in fact cast a mail-in ballot she received addressed to her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, for the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election.
Spitzer’s office went on to remind residents of California election law related to voter registration:
According to the California Elections Code, in order to vote a person must be registered as a voter by filling out and submitting an Affidavit of Registration which includes the voter’s name, residence, mailing address, date of birth, political party preference and a certification that the voter is a citizen of the United States. The affidavit must be signed under penalty of perjury.Proof of residence or identification is not required for citizens to register to vote in state elections nor is it required to cast a ballot in state elections. However, proof of residence and registration is required for first-time voters to vote in a federal election. As a result, the 2022 primary ballot cast in Maya Jean’s name was challenged and rejected. The 2021 election to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom was voted down by 61.9% of voters.
Yourex’s social media pages were also said to contain clues that the DA’s office believes will bolster their case in addition to the alleged confession:
On her social media, Yourex posted in January 2022 a picture of her dog wearing an “I voted” sticker and posing with her ballot. Another post from October 2024, showed a photograph of Maya’s dog tag and a vote-by-mail ballot with the caption “maya is still getting her ballot” even though the dog had previously passed away.
The discerning reader will note that if a person can successfully register their dog to vote and then vote in their name, then rest assured, illegal immigrants can fraudulently register and do it, too:
Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin quipped, “One must now wonder – how many animals will be successfully voting on California’s redistricting measure (Prop 50) this fall?”
It’s hard to say, but one thing’s for sure: the “Bark the Vote” campaign should be… interesting.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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