This story has been updated.
Bexar County will part ways with its longtime elections chief after the 2024 presidential election — opening up a difficult search for a position that’s come under intense political scrutiny in recent years.
The announcement came after roughly an hour of closed-door discussions in which Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen offered her resignation Friday.
“It’s time,” a tearful Callanen told reporters after the meeting.
She plans to stay on until the beginning of the new year, and the county plans to conduct a national search for her replacement in the meantime.
Since the 2020 election, several other Texas elections administrators have quit or been fired over political disagreements with elected officials, while Callanen maintained rare bipartisan support.
Gillespie County’s entire elections staff resigned months before the November election last year, while Tarrant County’s elections director resigned under political pressure. Harris County’s elections administrator became a target over his efforts to expand voting access, and the position was eliminated by the state’s Republican-led Legislature.
Callanen has overseen Bexar County’s elections since 2005.
County officials were sued twice in the last four years over Callanen’s plans to reduce the number of voting locations in Bexar County to prioritize resources at the busiest locations. Both times a judge ordered the county to operate more locations than Callanen had planned, causing a last-minute scramble to determine which polling places to keep open.
Voting rights groups made it known they were monitoring Callanen closely during this year’s primary and primary runoffs, in which they said the elections department again violated the law by not operating enough voting locations and not posting them online with enough advance notice.
In her nearly two decades, however, Callanen has enjoyed positive relationships with the county’s Republican and Democratic party officials.
In recent years, that support has helped insulate Callenen despite the lawsuits — and despite county leaders’ clear desire for the Elections Department to do more to expand voting access.
Nevertheless, last year Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai opened the door to a change of course.
“I want the Elections Department to stay out of the courts,” he told the San Antonio Report in December.
Sakai met with Callanen to discuss her plans that month, then convened the county’s five-member Elections Commission, which is responsible for hiring the elections administrator, leading up to Callanen’s Friday afternoon resignation.
Friday’s meeting came just days after a key position on the commission, the chair of the Republican Party of Bexar County, changed hands from an election denier to a newly sworn in Chair Kris Coons.
After the meeting, both county party chairs — who embraced Callanen together after the announcement — expressed optimism that they would be able to find agreement on her successor.
