CA Woman's Dog Voted for Years. Now He's a Freeway Star.
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. –– A criminal case against a Costa Mesa woman who registered her dog to vote has been dismissed after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid for anti-voter fraud billboards, prosecutors announced today.
Laura Lee Yourex, 64, originally charged with five felonies, had her case dismissed after completing the terms of a plea agreement reached in April, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.
As part of the agreement, Yourex was required to pay $1,500 for four billboards along the Costa Mesa (55) and Garden Grove (22) freeways warning against voter fraud and featuring a photograph Yourex posted on social media of her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, posing with a vote-by-mail ballot while wearing an “I voted”’ sticker.
“Don’t be a dog. Voter Fraud is a Crime. If you can’t legally vote, don’t vote. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute,” the billboards state. They also display the district attorney’s election fraud hotline, (714) 721-7578.
The billboards were required to run through the Nov. 3 general election, according to prosecutors.
Yourex pleaded guilty April 10 to misdemeanor knowing registration of a nonexistent person to vote. Prosecutors Tuesday dismissed four felony counts and reduced the remaining felony to a misdemeanor as part of the agreement.
In her written plea agreement, Yourex admitted registering her dog as a voter in May 2020, knowing that the animal was not eligible to vote.
“On or about 5/7/20, in Orange County, I did willfully and unlawfully cause an animal, to wit: a dog, to be registered as a voter, knowing that animal was not entitled to registration as a nonexistent person, and mailed and delivered that affidavit to a county elections official,” she wrote.
According to prosecutors, Yourex submitted mail-in ballots in her dog’s name in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election.
The ballot cast in the dog’s name during the 2021 recall election was counted, but the 2022 primary ballot was challenged and rejected because proof of residence and registration required for a first-time voter in a federal election was not provided, prosecutors said.
The district attorney’s office began investigating after the Orange County Registrar of Voters reported in October 2024 that a resident had disclosed registering her dog and submitting ballots in the animal’s name.
Yourex had posted a photograph of Maya Jean wearing an “I voted” sticker in January 2022, according to prosecutors.
In October 2024, she posted another photograph showing the dog’s identification tag and a vote-by-mail ballot with the caption “Maya is still getting her ballot,” even though the animal had died.
When Yourex was charged in September 2025, her attorney, Jaime Coulter, said the defendant had intended to expose weaknesses in the state’s voter registration system.
“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,” Coulter said in a statement at the time.
“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 previously told City News Service that former Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates had alerted him to the case after speaking with Yourex.
“I received an email from former Huntington Beach City Atty. 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.”
Chapman University law professor Nahal Kazemi previously said the case demonstrated that safeguards against election fraud can work.
“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.”
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