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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29-OCTOBER 05, 2025
Orange County registrar directed to dig deeper for fraudulent voters
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NO. 243
VOL. 13,
County report details after-action review of LA wildfire responses By Joe Taglieri
By City News Service
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range County supervisors on Tuesday voted to direct Registrar of Voters Bob Page to keep working to remove nonhumans from voting following news of a Costa Mesa woman accused of registering her dog to vote and twice casting ballots in the canine’s name. The directive was approved 3-1 with Orange County Board Chairman Doug Chaffee abstaining and Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento voting no. Supervisors Don Wagner and Janet Nguyen jointly proposed the directive. “This dog situation is a symptom, as is the 17 noncitizens subject to the Department of Justice lawsuit against the county — symptoms of a problem with our voting rolls,” said Wagner, who is running for secretary of state. Laura Lee Yourex, who is charged with registering her dog, is scheduled to be arraigned in December. The board’s directive to Page involves checking animal control agency licenses against voter registrations. Page said his office “found no matches between the two databases” in the county’s unincorporated areas. Registrar officials were checking animal databases in the cities the county contracts with, Page said. Page explained that when voters register for a federal election they must show proof of residency and identity, but that is not required for stateonly elections. The state law does, however, require voters to sign an affidavit attesting to their citizenship and identity and face perjury charges if they’re lying. “We are coming up on a peculiar special election to gerrymander the state,” Wagner said of the November special election asking voters
Bob Page, OC voter registrar. | Photo courtesy of Bob Page/LinkedIn
to approve a congressional redistricting plan. “Would a dog be allowed to register?” Page said there are about 2,600 voters on the rolls for the November special election who have not provided proof of identity or residency. Page said it represented just one-tenth of one percent of the registered voters in the county. County officials will send those voters a request to affirm that their registration is valid, Page said. “If somebody’s trying to game the system and I find out about it I’m going to refer it to the district attorney for investigation and prosecution,” Page said. “And I’m going to do everything within the law to maintain our voter
rolls in as accurate a fashion as possible.” Page noted that the county’s election rolls are “very well maintained.” He pointed to the notices of mail that was undeliverable as “twice as good” in 2024 as the national average. When pressed on whether the state policy was OK with him, Page deferred, saying he wanted to remain neutral on policy matters. “I’m an administrator, not a policy maker,” Page said. Chaffee noted that the registrar has recently won four awards. “I do want to make certain that you remain independent See Voting Page 23
joet@beaconmedianews.com and neutral,” Chaffee told Page. “I think that’s the only fair way to handle an election for all concerned.” Sarmiento said he felt it was more pressing that voter turnout has been so low in cities in his district. “I wish we could be talking about how can we encourage people participating in their government,” Sarmiento said. “What we are doing about that is more a worthy conversation.” Page said the registrar has a new draft plan that includes more voter education and outreach and there is a public hearing on it at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Irvine City Hall. He invited the public to provide input. “There’s a lot we can do with education,” he said. “We have a very robust voter education program, probably one of the most robust in the state but there are always new things we can do to reach people.” Page, however, noted that election turnout can depend on the quality of candidates and the amount of money put into campaigning. “I believe a general distrust in government and institutions right now for the last few years also drives low turnout,” Page said. Wagner also prodded the board to back a resolution opposing Proposition 50, which aims to change California’s congressional districts to potentially add five more Democrats to the House in response to the gerrymandering in Texas that added the possibility of five more Republicans to Congress. That resolution failed with only Nguyen and Wagner backing it. “It sticks a finger in the
A firefighter battles flames that have engulfed a home during the LA wildfires in January. | Photo courtesy of Los Angeles County
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he Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors released a report Thursday about the deadly Eaton and Palisades fires that calls for improvements to wildfire alerts, warnings and evacuation procedures during wildfires. The Eaton Fire in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades blaze devastated communities in January, claiming 31 lives combined, burning 37,000 acres and destroying over 16,000 structures. The fires also reached areas of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Sierra Madre and Malibu. While the review did not identify points of failure, it “found that a series of weaknesses, including ‘outdated policies, inconsistent practices and communications vulnerabilities,’ hampered the effectiveness of the county’s response,” according to a board statement. Supervisors commissioned the “Independent AfterAction Report” by McChrystal Group, a consulting firm led by retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The report assesses county “alert and evacuation systems during the See LA wildfires Page 24
January 2025 fire events and provide actionable recommendations to strengthen future response efforts.” According to the report, “While frontline responders acted decisively and, in many cases, heroically, in the face of extraordinary conditions, the events underscored the need for clearer policies, stronger training, integrated tools and improved public communication.” Concerns emerged during and after the fires about the effectiveness of public notifications for evacuation warnings. Messages were accidentally transmitted to thousands of residents across the Southland who weren’t intended to receive them, and questions also arose regarding the effectiveness or absence of warnings for many Altadena residents during the start of the Eaton Fire. The report delineates differences in two blazes. The Palisades Fire began during daylight hours in a community familiar with wildfire risks, while the Eaton Fire erupted at night in an area not associated with significant wildfire danger.