A Costa Mesa woman who registered her dog to vote and cast ballots in its name pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor earlier this year, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office, in a case that is now being cited in the campaign for a statewide voter ID measure.
Laura Lee Yourex registered her dog, Maya Jean, to vote in 2020, the DA’s office said. Yourex then cast two mail-in ballots under the dog’s name in separate elections. One of those ballots was counted in the 2021 recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom, who survived that vote. A second ballot, submitted in Maya Jean’s name for the 2022 primary, was rejected because federal races on that ballot triggered additional verification requirements for certain first-time voters.
Prosecutors said Yourex was not identified through any state verification process. She was instead caught after reporting her own conduct. In 2024, three years after the dog’s first ballot was counted, Yourex posted a photo online showing Maya Jean’s dog tag next to another mail-in ballot and noted that the dog was still receiving ballots despite having died.
The Orange County DA initially filed five felony charges against Yourex. Prosecutors later dismissed four of those charges and reduced the fifth, and Yourex pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor. As part of her sentence, she paid $1,500 to fund four billboards featuring Maya Jean with a message stating that voter fraud is a crime.
Federal ruling adds to the debate
The case has resurfaced amid a separate legal fight over noncitizen voting. This week, U.S. District Judge David Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, blocked the Trump administration from enforcing federal laws aimed at preventing noncitizens from voting, ruling that the effort amounted to an attempt to interfere with an ongoing election. California law separately prohibits noncitizens from voting, but the state does not verify the citizenship of people when they register.
Proposition 39
The Yourex case is being invoked by supporters of Proposition 39, a California ballot initiative that would require voters to present a government-issued ID at the polls or select a unique four-digit PIN for mail-in voting. The measure would also require the state to make what it calls “best efforts” to verify voters’ citizenship using government records, provide free state-issued voter ID cards on request, and conduct regular audits of election officials’ compliance.
Under current California law, voters cannot be required to show identification when voting in person, and mail-in ballots are verified only by matching the signature on the envelope to the signature on file in a voter’s registration record — a check that does not confirm whether the original registration itself was valid.
Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of Heritage Action’s Election Transparency Initiative, has argued that the contrast between Maya Jean’s two ballots — one counted, one rejected because of added federal verification — shows that additional safeguards can catch irregularities that the state’s current system misses. Cuccinelli has urged California voters to support Proposition 39.
