For Immediate Release
Date: 9/23/2025
Board of Supervisors Agree on Second Attempt to Investigate Non-Humans on Voter Rolls
Santa Ana, CA – The Orange County Registrar of Voters is required to investigate whether its voter rolls contain animals by comparing dog licenses to the names and addresses of their potential owners.
The measure, authored by Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen, passed with a 3-1-1 vote at today’s Board meeting. Registrar Bob Page was questioned about his efforts to verify fraudulent votes and remove the records. This follows criminal charges earlier this month against a woman who registered her dog to vote and cast ballots in two elections.
The Supervisors are concerned about California’s lax requirements for voter registration and lack of Voter ID with a pending special election on Prop. 50.
“Today, common sense prevailed” said Supervisor Wagner.” I want to thank Supervisor Nguyen for her steadfast partnership in bringing this vital item to direct the Registrar of Voters to investigate, disclose, and remove non-human registrations from our voter rolls. 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. With the upcoming gerrymandering special election, it is absolutely essential that our voter rolls be clean, accurate, and trustworthy. In California, anyone eligible to vote should be encouraged to do so and no one, or animal, ineligible to vote should be on our rolls. I’m proud that a majority of this Board agreed with us today.”
Supervisor Janet Nguyen stated in the Board meeting:
“How can we have a fair election if someone can stuff the ballot box with dogs? I want to make sure heading into the election that we all have confidence in it.”
Besides dog voting, another problem is households receiving multiple ballots in the mail.
“We get voters who call our office and say, ‘We got two ballots,’” Supervisor Janet Nguyen said. “We refer them back to the Registrar of Voters.”
Page said he refers fraudulent voters to the District Attorney’s Office. More than 2,600 Orange County voters lack identification, such as a driver’s license or social security number, which is required in federal elections. The Board directed Page to mail a letter to these voters requesting identification information.
He is also directed to obtain license information on all Orange County dogs to compare with voter rolls. The license information is kept by the cities where the owners reside or with other animal shelters that contract those cities.
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Supervisor Wagner is honored to serve the County’s Third District, representing over 630,000 residents in the communities of Anaheim Hills, Irvine, Lake Forest, North Tustin, Tustin, Orange, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, the unincorporated canyons, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda. To learn more about the Third District office, please visit donwagnerca.com and follow him on social media @donwagnerca for the latest updates.
Supervisor Janet Nguyen represents the First District of Orange County Board of Supervisors, which is the cities of Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Westminster and the unincorporated areas of Midway City and Rossmoor. Supervisor Nguyen served in the California State Senate, California State Assembly and as Orange County Supervisor and Garden Grove City Councilmember.
