Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page told county supervisors that his office has been cross-referencing animal licenses with voter registration records to identify ineligible voters ahead of the upcoming November election over redistricting.
He also told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he plans to mail out formal notification letters to more than 2,600 registered voters who have not yet provided proof of identification.
Supervisors Janet Nguyen and Don Wagner raised concerns at the board’s Tuesday meeting about fictitious registrations following recent news of a dog that was registered to vote in two recent state elections and a lawsuit by the federal government over noncitizen voter records.
The Board of Supervisors formally directed Page to verify all voter records and remove “non-humans” from voter rolls to ensure election integrity.
Nguyen and Wagner asked the registrar’s office to act with urgency, as ballots are set to be mailed in the next two weeks for the special Nov. 4 election that’s been called to decide Prop. 50, which would redraw California’s congressional maps.
The discussion to review voter registration information followed the county district attorney’s Sept. 5 filing of criminal charges against a Costa Mesa women prosecutors allege registered her dog and cast ballots in the 2021 recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the 2022 primary election.
“How can we have a fair election if we can stuff the ballot box with dogs?” Nguyen asked. “I want to make sure heading into the election that we all have confidence in it. I won my first election in 2007 by three votes. Every election matters and every vote counts.”
Wagner and Nguyen had wanted to add an emergency item to the board’s Sept. 9 meeting agenda before the registrar’s office began running voter files to print ballots for the upcoming election. But their colleagues said no, so they put the item on Tuesday’s agenda.
“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,” Wagner said.
Tuesday’s measure, which passed with a 3-1-1 vote, directs the county registrar to:
• Immediately investigate and remove any nonhumans, such as dogs and cats, from the county’s voter rolls.
• Make available to the public and media voter registration records and voting history files related to known non-human registrants.
• Report to the board within seven days with a plan to ensure integrity and ongoing validation of voter rolls ahead of the November special election.
• Engage the OC Animal Care agency to further cross-reference pet licenses with voter registration data to identify any pets that might be registered to vote.
“Although our Registrar of Voters demonstrated our elections are safe and secure with many safeguards, I supported the additional cross check of animal licensing” Supervisor Katrina Foley said. “I’m relieved to learn no matches were found in our database. We have nothing to hide.”
Page said his office has been able to review pet licenses against registered voters for those living within unincorporated county limits and found no issue, but it is still looking to get access to the data for the 14 cities that contract with OC Animal Care for services. The board has also said for the county to ask other cities to cooperate as well.
“Otherwise, I feel like there’s a lot of things we do that we’ll just keep doing in terms of maintaining the rolls,” Page said. “We feel like we do a really good job of daily maintaining the rolls.”
Page said his office regularly refers to the District Attorney’s Office any cases of people who appear to have voted twice – in person and by mail – for review, adding there have been in primary and general elections sometimes between 200 and 400. He said the DA has never seen the need for prosecution in his years as registrar.
Page also said his office has a number of sources it can use to cross-reference and verify voter records, including government databases and third-party credit reporting agencies.
His office will soon mail out the letters requesting information from the 2,616 registered voters who have not provided proof of identification, he said. The letters will include registration cancellation forms.