A Costa Mesa woman who registered her dog to vote and voted in the animal’s name in 2021 and 2022 was sentenced to pay for an anti-voter fraud billboard, prosecutors said Thursday.
Laura Lee Yourex, 64, was charged with five felonies in September 2025 after she posted a photo on social media of her dog wearing an “I Voted” sticker posing with a ballot, Orange County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Edds wrote in a statement.
The dog’s votes were counted in the 2021 election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom and then rejected in the 2022 primary. In October 2024, the Orange County Registrar of Voters submitted the case to the district attorney.
“After an investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation, sufficient evidence was uncovered to file criminal charges against Jurez, alleging that she illegally registered her dog to vote and then cast a mail-in ballot based on her dog’s fraudulent voter registration,” the statement read.
Yourex’s January 2022 post may have slipped past authorities, but in October 2024, she posted another photo showing Maya, her dog’s pet ID tag, and a mail-in ballot. Prosecutors said the photo was captioned “Maya Still Getting Ballots,” even though the dog was dead.
In April 2026, Yourex signed a plea agreement. She’s paying $1,500 for four billboards along Highways 55 and 22 in Orange County ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The billboard features a photo of Jurex’s dog and a ballot and reads: “Don’t be a dog. Voter fraud is a crime. If you can’t vote legally, don’t vote. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office will prosecute.”