OC woman who registered her dog to vote pleads guilty to misdemeanor

A Costa Mesa woman has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for registering her dog to vote, and then voting on behalf of the dog in two elections — a political stunt that made headlines.

How we got here

Laura Lee Yourex, 62, registered her dog, Maya Jean, to vote in 2020 and voted on behalf of the dog in the 2021 recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the 2022 primary. It all came to light when she self-reported the fraudulent voting last year and the DA filed criminal charges against her.

The context

Proponents of stricter requirements for voter identification point to incidents like this as evidence that it's easy to skirt California’s voting rules. Registering pets, or fake pets, has been a favored tool for some of these activists. Defenders of the state’s election rules say fraud is extremely rare.

What's the penalty?

Yourex pleaded guilty earlier this month in Orange County Superior Court to one misdemeanor charge of knowingly registering a “non-existent person to vote.” In exchange, the district attorney’s office dismissed the remaining four felony charges against her.

Initially, Yourex faced up to six years in state prison. But after her plea deal, she will face no more than one year in county jail. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 16.

Why this matters

The dog incident comes at a time of heightened debate over voter ID. Congress is discussing several bills that would require people to prove their identity and/or citizenship in order to vote. At the same time, Californians are likely to vote on a ballot initiative this fall that would require voters to show ID at polling places and provide partial numbers of that ID (social security, driver’s license, or other state-issued ID) on mail-in ballot envelopes.

Go deeper

Voter ID could be headed to the California ballot in November