There are Democrats, Republicans and Independents, but now Orange County officials are trying to identify how many dogs and cats may be registered to vote.
On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors directed staff to cross-reference voter rolls with pet registration data in the county in order to make sure there are no four-legged voters with names like Fido, Fifi, Spot, Sparky or Lucky casting ballots in the next special election in November.
“How do we check that dogs and cats or whatever are not on our (voter) rolls?” Supervisor Dan Wagner asked during the meeting Tuesday.
The measure, introduced by Wagner and Supervisor Janet Nguyen, came after a Costa Mesa woman was charged early this month with five felony counts after allegedly registering her dog to vote, and then casting ballots for the pet in two elections. The woman, Laura Lee Yourex, 62, had allegedly registered her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, to vote in the 2021 gubernatorial recall and the 2022 primary.
Yourex — the owner, not the dog — was charged with felony counts of perjury, offering a false document to be filed, two counts of casting a ballot when not entitled to vote, and registering a nonexistent person to vote, according to the district attorney’s office.
“The idea that pets, or any other non-human, could be registered to vote and participate in election is both absurd and deeply alarming,” according to the memo from the two supervisors. “The Board of Supervisors must act now to restore public confidence.”
Since news of the charges came to light, supervisors directed the Orange County Registrar of Voters to review thousands of voter records to ensure that no other pets have been registered to vote in the county and, on Tuesday, directed the agency to expand that review to thousands of more pet registrations to ensure no other four-legged pets are casting votes.
The registrar recently checked pet registrations in all unincorporated communities in the county against voter records, and was directed Tuesday to try to expand that review to pet registrations in all incorporated cities within the county.
Wagner called the news of a dog being registered to vote a sign of a larger problem.
“They’re symptoms of a problem with our voting rolls,” he said.
But not all supervisors expressed such concern with the voter roll, or that an incident of a dog being registered to vote was emblematic of a bigger problem.
“The numbers you are showing us tell us there is integrity in the voting system,” Supervisor Katrina Foley said Tuesday.
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said that, instead of focusing on the possibility of pets voting, the county should be focused on increasing voter participation.
“I wish we could be talking about how do we encourage people to participate in their government, and following the law, ensuring that the voting is secure,” he said. “That to me is a more worthy conversation.”
Bob Page, registrar of voters for the county, said the agency this month has cross-referenced nearly 8,000 pet registration records in unincorporated areas in the county at the direction of the board, and has found no indication of pets getting registered to vote in that review.
The Registrar of Voters is also requesting the same data from cities that contract with the county for animals services to get access to that data, Page said, and will review those pet records against the county voter rolls. On Tuesday, Nguyen asked Page to work with county attorneys to request pet records from cities in Orange County that provide their own animals services or contract with nonprofits and other agencies.
Page added that the agency is also looking at more than 2,600 additional registered voters whose identity the agency has been unable to confirm. Those voters — roughly one-tenth of one percent of the county’s registered voters — will be contacted to confirm their identity, Page said.
If they do cast ballots, he said, the ballots are also put aside to be challenged and verified.
Before the next election, the agency will be reaching out to those voters one additional time to verify their status.
The registrar of voters constantly works to verify, update and confirm information on voter rolls, and Page said the agency regularly updates the rolls for deaths or other changes.
“If someone is trying to game the system and I find out, I’m going to refer it to the district attorney for investigation and prosecution,” he said. “And I’m going to do everything I can within the law to maintain our voter rolls in as accurate fashion as possible.”
Recently, Page said as an example, the county obtained death records from the credit bureau Experian to help update voter rolls.
Page said current data suggests Orange County voter rolls are more up to date than federal voter rolls. Last year, he said, the undeliverable mail results for the primary election in the county was 1.6%, and 1.7% in the general election. Nationwide, however, he said the undeliverable rate for all first-class mail was 4.3%.
“So I feel we do a really good job of daily maintaining the rolls,” Page said.
The supervisors’ request to cross-reference voter rolls with pet records also comes as California heads into a special election in November with potentially significant political ramifications for the rest of the country. Voters then will decide on Prop. 50, which would waive the state’s independent redistricting process and approve a new partisan congressional map for the state that would favor Democrats.
The measure was introduced in response to an effort in Texas to approve new redistricting maps that are likely to give the Republican party five additional seats in the House of Representatives.
“I’m concerned with the upcoming special election,” Nguyen said Tuesday, adding that she wanted to make sure voters had confidence in the results of the election.
“How can we have a fair election if someone can stuff the ballot box with dogs,” Nguyen said in a statement after the measure was approved. “I want to make sure heading into the election that we all have confidence in it.”
Wagner also pointed to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Orange County, asking for records for 17 individuals who were ineligible to cast a ballot but appeared on the county’s voter rolls.
The county has responded by sending information on the 17 individuals who self-reported or identified as ineligible by the district attorney’s office, including names and addresses.
Each election, Page said his agency has referred to prosecutors between 100 to 400 people who attempted to vote twice in previous elections — an incident that occurs most often with individuals who sent in mail-in ballots and also attempted to vote in person.
But since 2022, prosecutors have not filed charges against those voters, until the Costa Mesa woman was identified registering her dog.
Last month, while discussing the suit, Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer told supervisors there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the county.
