A California woman who registered her dog to vote and cast ballots in the animal’s name has been ordered to help finance a highly visible warning about voter fraud—featuring the same pet at the center of the case.
Laura Lee Yourex of Costa Mesa faced five felony charges after allegedly registering her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, to vote in two California elections. One was the contentious 2021 gubernatorial recall election targeting Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said the ballot submitted in Maya’s name was counted in the 2021 recall election. A second ballot, cast under the dog’s name during the 2022 primary, was rejected and not included in the results.
The unusual voter fraud case surfaced after Yourex allegedly bragged about the scheme on social media. In one post, she shared a photograph of Maya wearing an “I voted” sticker while sitting beside a mail-in ballot.
Prosecutors said those social media posts helped bring the alleged misconduct to light. Criminal charges were ultimately filed in September 2025.
The case took an extraordinary turn when Yourex agreed to transform the evidence she had posted online into a public warning about the crime she admitted committing.
Under a plea agreement, Yourex pleaded guilty on April 10 to one count of knowingly registering a nonexistent person to vote.
She also agreed to contribute $1,500 toward four anti-voter-fraud billboards featuring the photograph of Maya wearing the “I voted” sticker.
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
The billboards deliver a direct message to drivers traveling through Orange County.
“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 signs state.
“As a result, the 2022 primary ballot cast in Maya Jean’s name was challenged and rejected,” the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.
The recall effort against California Governor Gavin Newsom failed, with 61.9 percent of voters rejecting the proposal, according to the release.
Officials said the campaign aims to emphasize that registering an ineligible person to vote and submitting an unlawful ballot can carry serious criminal penalties.
Prosecutors said the billboards will remain along the 55 and 22 freeways until California’s midterm election on November 3.
The district attorney’s office also released an image of one of the billboards, placing Maya’s photograph at the heart of the public voter-fraud awareness campaign.
The investigation began on October 28, 2024, after the Orange County Registrar of Voters notified the district attorney’s office about the alleged voter fraud.
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 agreed to pay for four anti-voter-fraud billboards featuring her pet
By then, Maya had died. Prosecutors said Yourex later shared another social media post showing the dog’s identification tag next to a vote-by-mail ballot.
The alleged caption drew particular attention: “maya is still getting her ballot.”
The post became another element of the case against Yourex, whose conduct prosecutors said she had openly discussed online.
In a sworn statement included in her plea agreement, Yourex acknowledged registering the animal as a voter.
‘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.
Although Yourex initially faced five felony charges, the case was fully dismissed earlier this week following her guilty plea and agreement to fund the billboard campaign, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The resolution brings an end to a case that began with an election office referral and escalated after prosecutors examined the woman’s social media activity.
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The outcome also leaves a lasting public reminder of the consequences of attempting to circumvent election laws with Maya’s photograph serving as an unlikely warning to would-be offenders.
Trump recently slammed mail-in ballots as ‘fraud’ and publicly said he wanted to sign an executive order outlawing the voting method
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Should voter fraud penalties use public shaming, or does this go too far in deterring future crimes?
The story comes after the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page in June for allegedly refusing to provide the Justice Department with records pertaining to the removal of people lacking documentation from its voter registration list, the Seattle Times reported.
Trump recently slammed mail-in ballots as ‘fraud’ and publicly said he wanted to sign an executive order outlawing the voting method.
The president snubbed the expansion of mail-in voting in the 2020 election to accommodate for the pandemic.
He declared mail-in ballots created widespread ‘fraud’ that he claims is to blame for his loss to Joe Biden.
But four years later during his successful 2024 campaign, he repeatedly pushed his supporters to embrace voting by mail.
The pendulum swung again when the president took to his Truth Social to slam the idea of voting in elections by mail ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump said he will be ‘leading a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots’ and overhaul voting machines that he claims were used by Democrats to steal that 2020 election for Joe Biden.
He did not give a timeline for issuance of an executive order on ending the voting method, though it’s likely to come before the 2026 midterm elections as Republicans aim to hold onto their majorities in the House and Senate.
Video emerged showing a local lawmaker and an accomplice stuffing papers into a ballot drop box in Michigan ahead of local elections.
At the White House on August 18, Trump reiterated his post, claiming: ‘We’ve got to stop mail-in voting and Republicans have to lead the charge.’
‘The Democrats want it because they have horrible policy,’ he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office for the president’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. ‘If you have mail-in voting, you’re not going to have many Democrats get elected.’
‘That’s bigger than anything having to do with redistricting, believe me. And the Republicans have to get smart,’ he concluded.
Trump kicked off his rant by claiming that the US is the ‘only country in the world that uses mail-in voting.’
‘All others gave it up because of the massive voter fraud encountered,’ Trump claimed.
But many nations use mail-in voting – including countries whose leaders are convening at the White House.
Some countries that have no-excuse mail-in voting, meaning they do not need a reason to vote by mail rather than in person, are Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, and many others.
There are also many countries that offer conditional or limited mail-in voting options.
Trump, despite pushing mail-in voting and early voting on his supporters in the 2024 election, says that Democrats are using the ‘mail-in ballot hoax’ because they can’t win elections through traditional in-person voting.
‘Democrats are virtually unelectable without using this completely disproven mail-in scam,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added: ‘Elections can never be honest with mail-in ballots/voting, and everybody, in particular the Democrats, knows this.’