Maya Jean Yourex of Orange County, California, cast her vote in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election.
The problem? Maya’s a dog.
Now, Maya’s owner, Laura Lee Yourex, 62, of Costa Mesa has been charged with five felonies, per CBS News.
Yourex allegedly registered Maya to vote in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and the 2022 primary election.
“The dog’s vote was successfully counted in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election but was rejected in the 2022 primary,” according to a release from the Department of Justice.
In October of 2024, the Orange County Registrar of Voter’s Office notified the Orange County District Attorney’s Office after a resident “self-reported that she had registered her dog to vote and had in fact cast a mail-in ballot she received addressed to her dog, Maya Jean Yourex.”
Investigators with the district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation said photos on Yourex’s social media showed Maya wearing an “I voted” sticker while posing with a voter’s ballot in January 2022 as well as Maya’s dog tag and a vote-by-mail ballot in October 2024 with the caption “maya is still getting her ballot,” prosecutors said, adding Maya had previously died.
Several criteria must be met in order for someone to vote, according to the California Elections Code.
These are “a person must be registered as a voter by filling out and submitting an Affidavit of Registration that includes the voter’s name, residence, address, date of birth, certification that the voter is a U.S. citizen and political party preference. The affidavit is also signed under penalty of perjury,” CBS News reported.
The DOJ’s release added proof of residence or identification is not needed for citizens to register to vote in a state election. It is also not required to cast a ballot.
Both proof of residence and registration are required for first-time voters in a federal election, DOJ said.
“As a result, the 2022 primary ballot cast in Maya Jean’s name was challenged and rejected,” the release said. “The 2021 election to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom was voted down by 61.9% of voters.”
Yourex was charged with one count of perjury, one count of procuring or offering a false or forged document to be filed, one count of registering a non-existent person to vote and two counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote. All of the charges are felonies. If convicted, Yourex faces a minimum of six years in state prison, according to prosecutors.
