A California woman had to pay up to resolve her criminal case after she was charged with five felonies for illegally registering her dog to vote in two elections, prosecutors said.
Laura Lee Yourex, of Costa Mesa, submitted ballots in the name of her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, during California’s gubernatorial recall election in 2021 and the state’s 2022 primary election, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Maya’s vote counted in the 2021 election to recall state Gov. Gavin Newsom, but not the 2022 primary election, prosecutors said.
Yourex was criminally charged in September 2025 after she took to social media, “bragging about her crimes,” including January 2022 when she posted a photo of Maya wearing an “I voted” sticker and standing with a mail-in ballot, the district attorney’s office said in a Thursday, October 15, news release.
The case was fully dismissed earlier this week after Yourex pleaded guilty in April to one count of knowingly registering a nonexistent person to vote and agreeing to pay for four anti-voter billboards displaying her pet, prosecutors announced.
Yourex was required to pay $1,500 for the four billboards displaying the photo she posted online of Maya with the “I voted” sticker, according to the district attorney’s office.
The billboards will stay visible along the 55 and 22 freeways in Orange County until the state’s midterm election on November 3, prosecutors said.
The district attorney’s office shared a photo of the billboard, which states: “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 conclusion of Yourex’s case comes nearly two years after the Orange County Registrar of Voter’s Office alerted the district attorney’s office to the alleged voter fraud on October 28, 2024.
That month, Yourex had posted another photo after Maya had already died, showing Maya’s dog tag along with a vote-by-mail ballot, according to prosecutors.
She allegedly captioned the post, “maya is still getting her ballot.”
When Yourex pleaded guilty on April 10, she wrote a sworn statement as part of her plea agreement, saying “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.”
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office encourages anyone with information on potential “election-related irregularities” to call the office’s Election Fraud Hotline at (714) 721-7578 or reach out via email to Elections@ocdistrictattorney.gov.
