SANTA CRUZ (CBS SF) — The Santa Cruz County Registrar of Voters has gone on record to dispute a widely-publicized claim of voter fraud, asserting that a dog did not register and vote in the November 3rd election.
The claim about a dog voting in the county was made in viral video that showed a woman saying her service dog microchp ID number was used as a Social Security number to register the pet and vote. As of Wednesday evening, the video had tens of thousands of views.
READ MORE: Bay Area Health Workers Cheer Newly-Approved 1-Shot Johnson & Johnson VaccineRegistrar of Voters Gail Pellerin denied the claim in a tweet and said her office takes allegations of voter fraud very seriously.
“Of course they did not call me about this claim,” Pellerin said in the tweet.
READ MORE: Antioch Gas Station Shooting Leaves Man Suffering Life-Threatening InjuriesMORE NEWS: Hundreds Rally in San Mateo to Denounce Violence Against Asian AmericansFor the record, a dog did NOT register & vote in our county. Our office takes allegations of voter fraud very seriously & will investigate every report. Of course they did not call me about this claim. They just posted for 23k viewers. We do let dogs guard our VoteMobile! pic.twitter.com/OvULjimoAZ
— Gail Pellerin (@votescount) November 11, 2020
Pellerin told KSBW Monterey the claim was investigated and there was no record that corroborates it. In Santa Cruz County, Pellerin told KSBW her office was investigating one case where a man appeared to have voted twice and the case was been forwarded to the district attorney’s office.