Official records reveal that Civic Government Solutions, whose founder has claimed repeatedly that it’s nonpartisan, is a front group for Democrat voter registration organization Civitech. CGS is now acquiring contracts with various local governments in Texas to register voters.
As an LLC, technically CGS is not subject to the same transparency and nonpartisanship requirements as nonprofits engaged in similar endeavors.
The Texas Comptroller’s Public Information Reports show CGS Founder/CEO/Director Jeremy Smith, Director Dan Graham, and COO Sarah Jackel hold these same titles with Civitech. Their LinkedIn activity and Civitech demonstrate overtly pro-Democrat, anti-Republican biases. In addition to PIRs showing CGS and Civitech share an Austin address, a web domain lookup of CGS shows Civitech as the registrant, indicating its direct control over CGS.
CGS’ homepage mentions that its team has registered voters and sent mailers since 2018. Yet CGS officially formed on July 15, 2020. That’s because Civitech’s team built its database in 2018 with the Pipeline Fund’s support, in collaboration with Catalist and BallotReady, all Democrat-focused voter databases.
In 2021, Civitech acquired Alloy, a defunct 2019 startup funded by LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman to modernize the Democrat Party’s data operation. Civitech sought Alloy’s “Verify” data tool and voter file for its “proprietary database”. Presumably, CGS shares this “proprietary database” as its site boasts of having likely new voters not in commercial voter files, also known as eligible but unregistered (EBU) voters.
Since then, CGS received $48,000 in June from Travis County “to assist with a pilot for voter outreach services” with another $500,000 earmarked. It has also received almost $1 million for voter registration in Harris County. CGS claims to be talking with Dallas County and is about to secure a $591,112 subscription from Bexar County. All four counties are Democrat strongholds.
Democrat Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez brought the idea to the County Commissioners who voted for it 4-1. Grant Moody, the court’s sole Republican, voted against it.
“The timing is problematic,” Moody told PBS. “We could have also pushed this ‘til after the election. We could have also focused on our primary elections and our local elections. That’s where we have abysmal turnout.”
Civitech’s blog outlines its true aims: targeting EBU voters who will vote Democrat in the general election. Meanwhile, CGS’ site sidesteps its July 2020 founding, its team’s earlier 2020 activities, and intended targets. Rather, it touts its 2020 general election registration successes, presumably sharing credit with Civitech.
“They’re operating like a mini-ERIC,” said Devvie Duke.
As a former State Republican Executive Committeewoman and chair of the Republican Party of Texas Chair Election Integrity Committee, Duke advocates eliminating non-governmental organizations like CGS from the election process. She believes this will help restore faith in elections.
“Our government has to stop outsourcing its responsibility in elections. Every time they do that we see a loss of transparency and access to data as citizens.”
Christine Welborn, president of Advancing Integrity, expressed concerns about CGS sending “a voter registration application prefilled with voter information” to EBUs as it makes ballot harvesting easier.
“The more we have the voter’s handwriting on documents, the better we can determine whether or not a ballot application is a voter’s,” Welborn stated. “We should have the same standards for everything, so no prefilled application for ballot by mail, no prefilled voter registration applications.”
“Now is the time to talk to the legislators,” Duke said. “It’s up to the grassroots to raise awareness of this topic.”
“We need to have constant vigilance,” agrees Welborn. “The best thing you can do is go to your county commissioners and say, ‘I am not for funding these third-party organizations to do this.’”
The Bexar County Commissioner’s Court will meet on August 6 and 20 to discuss CGS’ involvement.
