Woman pleads guilty to registering her dog to vote in OC
WESTMINSTER, Calif. (KESQ) - A 63-year-old Costa Mesa woman will be sentenced in October for registering her dog to vote in what she claimed was an attempt to expose election fraud.
Laura Lee Yourex pleaded guilty April 10 to misdemeanor knowing registration of a nonexistent person to vote. As part of her plea deal with prosecutors, felony counts of perjury, procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, registered or recorded, and not being entitled to vote at an election were dismissed. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 16.
Yourex illegally cast ballots in her dog's name in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and 2022 primary election, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
"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," the defendant's attorney, Jaime Coulter, said in a statement when her client was charged last year. "Ms. Yourex never hid from taking personal responsibility as she self-reported the matter to the Orange County Registrar of Voters, intending to have them investigate and ultimately improve our voting registration system."
Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said his office was alerted to the fraud by former Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates, who went on to work as an attorney with the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department. He has since left that post.
"I received an email from former Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates who said a voter talked to him and shared that her dog received a ballot,'' Page said. "I quickly referred that to the district attorney to investigate."
Prosecutors confirmed that Yourex reported she had registered her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, to vote. The 2022 primary ballot cast in the dog's name was challenged and rejected because proof of residence and registration required for first-time voters in a federal election was not shown, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Yourex even posted a photo on social media of her dog in January 2022 with an "I voted" sticker.
She also posted, in October 2024, a photograph of a vote-by-mail ballot with the caption ``Maya is still getting her ballot,'' despite the dog dying, prosecutors said.
Page pointed out that federal law requires new voters to prove identification and residency, with state law requiring an affidavit. So if a voter is able to skirt the state law with a false attestation, it would be flagged in a federal election when the proof of ID and residency is required, Page said.
In the last election there were 571 voters who cast ballots that were flagged, with 121 fixing them by providing ID and proof of residency, Page said.
Chapman University law professor Nahal Kazemi said last year when the defendant was charged that the prosecution of the case shows the system's checks and balances work.
"I hate to use a pun here but this is the dog that didn't bark -- it's a scenario where the lack of voter fraud that happens is what makes this so unusual,'' Kazemi said.
"At least the second time the dog's vote was cast it was identified as an ineligible voter,'' Kazemi said. ``That's what we expect to see.''
Kazemi insisted that voter fraud is minimal.
"There isn't a lot of voter fraud and the system has checks in place, so if something anomalous happens it is possible to catch it,'' Kazemi said. "To treat it as the biggest problem in our electoral system is
misguided.''
