Shortly before last November’s election, Bexar County gave more than a quarter million of your tax dollars to a private company to register voters. The county s
Former Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen says $261,000 contract did not register as many new voters as county claims.Shortly before last November’s election, Bexar County gave more than a quarter million of your tax dollars to a private company to register voters.
The county says the contract paid off and thousands of new voters were registered. But in an exclusive News 4 I-Team Waste Watch report, the former elections administrator says the results were not nearly as successful as the county and the contractor claim. The contract with Civic Government Solutions was controversial because the county had never paid a contractor to do what thousands of volunteers and outside groups already do: register voters. The Texas Attorney General sued Bexar County in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the deal from going through.She was one of numerous conservative speakers who urged county commissioners not to hire CGS last September, because the sole source contract didn't go through the competitive bidding process. Opponents also argued the company’s CEO Jeremy Smith had publicly voiced support for democratic candidates. “Yes, I have a personal view of who I want to win, that does not influence the way a company works," Smith said at the September hearing. County Judge Peter Sakai and Commissioners Justin Rodriguez and Rebeca Clay-Flores voted to approve the contract after Smith said his company's efforts would increase the number of registered voters by as many as 25 thousand.After the election the News 4 I-Team tried for weeks to get results from the county to see if CGS hit that goal. We were finally given records showing CGS mailings led to 15,081 new voters getting registered. Of those, 10,816 voted in the November election. In an interview this week, Jeremy Smith of CGS said they fell short of 25 thousand because later the county asked his company to send out fewer applications, which reduced the cost of the contract from $392 thousand to $261 thousand. “When you narrow the scope of who you are targeting you then resultingly register fewer people but you also pay fewer dollars," Smith said. However, Jacque Callanen, who retired after the November election after 20 years as elections administrator says the numbers released by the county are vastly overstated. “Is there any way that there could have been 15 thousand registrations and ten thousand new voters?” Jaie Avila asked Callanen.Callanen says she kept a simple spreadsheet which she used to track CGS registrations, which were marked with a special code. According to Callanen’s count, CGS only registered 959 new voters before the November election, and only 677 of the new voters cast ballots in November.“This was a huge waste of taxpayer money, we spent over $260 thousand ultimately registering under a thousand voters, so we paid over $270 per new voter registration," Moody said. Late Wednesday CGS responded saying its figures included address updates for people who were already registered and that its contract with the county allowed it to count those.County Judge Peter Sakai told me the county has not verified the higher numbers supplied by CGS.“I'm going to bring that up to the commissioners court and my fellow commissioners are going to have to decide what information they need for us to make a decision," Sakai responded. CGS has been talking to county officials about contracts for future elections. Sakai says he wants new Elections Administrator Michele Carew to play a key role in those decisions. Carew so far has not responded to our interview requests.
Bexar County Voter Registration Investigations Election Results Contract Controversy Taxpayer Money Jacque Callanen Local Jeremy Smith Civic Government Solutions
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