Orange County in California ordered its voter registrar on Tuesday to scour voting lists and remove any names of pets that somehow made it onto the rolls.

The county Board of Supervisors voted to order the cleansing after a troubling case earlier this month where charges were brought against a woman accused of registering — and actually casting ballots — in the name of her dog.

The board adopted the measure on a 3-1 vote, with one member abstaining.

“Today, common sense prevailed,” said Supervisor Don Wagner. “The fact that a dog was registered and voted in two elections here in Orange County proves just how vulnerable our system is and why we need Voter ID laws in California.”

He was joined in sponsoring the measure by Supervisor Janet Nguyen.

“How can we have a fair election if someone can stuff the ballot box with dogs?” she said.

They said the measure was particularly important now, given the looming special election this year when voters will be asked to adopt Gov. Gavin Newsom’s partisan congressional map, designed to shift five seats from Republicans to Democrats.

The county district attorney earlier this month charged Laura Lee Yourex with registering her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, and casting mail-in ballots in its name in 2021 and 2022. The 2021 ballot was counted but the 2022 ballot was rejected.

The prosecutor said Ms. Yourex posted a picture of her dog with an “I voted” sticker.

Registrar Bob Page told supervisors that state law doesn’t require identification to vote in state matters, which is likely why the 2021 ballot was counted. That was a state recall election.

Federal law requires proof of identity before registering, which the dog did not provide. That’s likely why the 2022 vote in a primary election for federal offices wasn’t counted.

Mr. Page said more than 2,600 names on his rolls — a tenth of a percent of the total — have not shown identification but would still be eligible to vote in the upcoming congressional redistricting election.

He said he’s going to prod them to provide identification, even though it’s not required.

The registrar also said all names on the roll have attested that they are citizens of the U.S.

“Did the dog do that?” Mr. Wagner wondered.

“All registrations on our voter roll, the person — the registration form — checked the box that they were a citizen,” Mr. Page said.

“I am required under state law to accept that attestation,” he added.

Mr. Wagner said when he tried to get information on the dog, Mr. Page told him the information was secret under state privacy law. He called that “nonsense.”

“Privacy does not extend to dogs. The dog is dead, privacy rights expire,” he said.

Earlier this year, the county revealed that it had booted 17 people from its rolls after learning they weren’t citizens, and thus ineligible to vote.

The board ordered the registrar to cross-check the voting records against pet license databases.

Mr. Page has already cross-checked thousands of pets from some lists and said he didn’t find any of them registered.

Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who voted against the pet-removal motion, chided colleagues for the effort, saying the bigger issue is low voter turnout.

“That to me is a more worthy conversation,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.