Long story short
The $392,700 contract with CGS, which was awarded during the Sept. 3 Commissioners Court meeting, includes the ability to print and mail state voter registration forms, with postage paid return envelopes, to unregistered voters in Bexar County.
The decision was met with a lawsuit from Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton, which sought an emergency order to block the program. The suit alleged that the plan to employ the third-party vendor to mail voter registration forms to individuals regardless of eligibility would violate the law.
In a statement following the Sept. 3 vote, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the decision to hire CGS is a nonpartisan approach to enable new residents who recently relocated to the county to register to vote.
“The right to vote is a foundation of democracy, and voter registration is a gateway to civic participation. Bexar County’s nonpartisan effort to provide voter registration applications to targeted eligible citizens is within the authority of the county and consistent with state law,” Sakai said.
On Sept. 16, State District Judge Antonia Arteaga denied Paxton’s request to block the plan to mail voter registration forms to county residents and said the request was moot because the forms had already been mailed out.
According to independent reporting from San Antonio Report, the state’s representation filed an updated request ahead of the hearing asking that no additional letters be sent out.
After the decision, the Texas State Attorney General’s office filed an appeal challenging the dismissal.
“In a display of bad faith, Bexar County engaged in dirty tricks to avoid appropriate judicial review of a clearly unlawful program that invites voter fraud,” Paxton said. “These actions demonstrate that Bexar County knew what they were doing was wrong, yet expedited the mailout of unsolicited registration forms before the issue could be argued in court. I will fight every step of the way to hold them accountable and uphold the integrity of our elections."
The outlook
Republican Party of Bexar County Chairwoman Kris Coons said the county party is opposed to the contract with third-party vendor CGS because it can cause confusion among voters and could unnecessarily facilitate fraud.
Bexar County Democratic Party Chairwoman Monica Alcantara said she stands by the commissioners court’s decision to contract CGS to mail out voter registration forms.
Coons also expressed concerns about the contract due to potential partisanship.
“Jeremy Smith, CGS founder and CEO, has repeatedly claimed nonpartisanship; however, Smith admitted a Democrat bias in overseeing both CGS and Civitech before the Bexar County’s Commissioners Court,” Coons said.
Alcantara said she believes that the voter registration contract is a nonpartisan issue, and that registering voters is about getting the job done and not about creating partisan divides.
“[The Bexar County Democratic Party] wants everyone to vote, whether you’re a Republican or whether you’re a Democrat. The process should be easy for everyone and made available to everyone,” Alcantara said.
Coons said the Republican Party of Bexar County is not directly engaged with any organizations in the voter registration process.
Alcantara said the Bexar County Democratic Party works with several organizations to register voters.
The party always works with many different organizations during every election cycle and it takes many hands to reach out across Bexar County, Alcantara said.
By the numbers
