A California woman is facing up to six years in prison after allegedly registering her dog, Maya Jean, to vote and casting ballots in two elections—one of which was counted, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed.
Laura Yourex, 62, is charged with five felonies. She appeared in court for the first time but did not enter a plea. Her lawyer, Jaime Coulter, explained that the act was meant to expose vulnerabilities in the state voting 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.
The case has raised concern among local officials. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said,
“You don’t register on purpose your dog or your cat or your horse or anything else… to mock the system.”
Other supervisors proposed reviewing voter rolls and cross-referencing them with dog license records to identify potential irregularities. Don Wagner said,
“We need to find out what the registrar will do to prevent dogs and cats from being enlisted on the rolls.”
Registrar of voters Bob Page confirmed the matter was immediately referred to the district attorney after receiving a report of a possible fictitious voter.
Since last year’s presidential election, 175,000 names have been purged from Orange County voter files due to death, relocation, or ineligibility. Coulter emphasized the need for accountability:
“While her intent was to highlight flaws in the system, people should be held responsible for actions like this.”
SOURCE: ABC News
