In a story that would be laughable if it weren’t so troubling, prosecutors in Orange County, California, announced that a woman managed to register her dog to vote. Worse, the “dog” reportedly voted. 

Twice. 

Per the LA Times, 62-year-old Laura Lee Yourex submitted a ballot for her dog, Maya, during the 2021 gubernatorial recall election and had it accepted. She repeated the stunt during the 2022 primary, though thankfully that ballot was rejected. 

Yourex brazenly publicized her scheme by posting images of the dog with an “I Voted” sticker and the illegal ballot in January 2022. She then flaunted her alleged crime in October after Maya had died, posting a photo captioned “Maya is still getting her ballot.”

It’s the kind of case the left prefers to dismiss. They claim mail-in ballots are secure and that cases like Youreux’s exist as outliers. 

But the case perfectly illustrates what the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has been warning about for years. That is, the rapid expansion of vote-by-mail has exposed America’s election system to fraud and error in entirely predictable ways. 

PILF has repeatedly documented how issues with mail-in voting stem directly from states’ reliance on poorly maintained voter rolls. We’ve catalogued millions of registration errors ranging from duplicate records to dead people on the rolls. 

With those list maintenance errors in mind, a state mailing ballots to every registered voter regardless of a formal request means things get dicey quickly. 

In Nevada, where every active registrant gets sent a mail-in ballot, PILF physically went to several ludicrous locations some voters had set as their home address. These locales included strip clubs, casinos, gas stations, and several empty lots. They all received mail-in ballots.

Even if no one is deliberately trying to game the system like Yourex, mail ballots generate enormous numbers of lost, unaccounted for, or rejected votes. 

In 2020 alone, nearly 15 million mail ballots went unaccounted for, according to federal data compiled by PILF, and more than half a million were rejected outright. Who knows how the 2020 presidential election could have gone if all those ballots were counted? 

Every one of those ballots represented a voter who expected their vote to count but had it lost in the system. Anyone who cares one iota about voting rights should view that as an utter failure.

Critics often claim that cases of fraud are exceedingly rare. That argument misses the point. 

The question is not whether someone can compile a long list of prosecutions, (the Heritage Foundation has by the way) but whether the system contains vulnerabilities that make fraud possible. 

If a dog gets a ballot and votes, the answer is obvious.

PILF has consistently recommended simple reforms that would mitigate these problems. For instance, instead of automatically sending ballots to everyone on the rolls, states should require voters to request one. That simple step ensures that a ballot is being mailed to someone who has expressed an intent to use it, not to a name sitting dormant in a database. 

States should also require some form of identification for vote-by-mail ballots. In-person voters already show ID in many jurisdictions. A similar standard with mail-in ballots would help confirm legitimacy and prevent fraud. 

Election officials must prioritize voter-roll maintenance, systematically removing duplicates, outdated records, and the deceased before every election cycle. While states should do this on their own, the federal government can encourage routine cleaning by tying funding to maintenance efforts.

Finally, ballots should be due by Election Day to reduce the ambiguity and potential for manipulation that arise when votes trickle in for days afterward. In 2022, it took 35 days for all the votes in federal elections to be counted. That’s because some states accept ballots up to two weeks after Election Day.

Mail-in voting magnifies flaws in voter rolls, creates opportunities for intentional abuse, and generates huge numbers of lost or rejected votes. If a dog can cast a ballot in California, it should be treated as a wake-up call. 

If a system can’t stop Fido from voting, it is not a system worthy of American elections.

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.  

Help us continue to report on President Trump's successes. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT for 60% off your membership.