Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen Announces Retirement Effective January 2025

Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen announced her retirement Friday, but she will oversee November’s contentious presidential election before leaving office.

At 78 years old and after overseeing more than 300 elections during her 19 years as an administrator, Callanen said it was time to step down. In total, she worked nearly three decades in the elections office.

The county elections commission accepted his retirement plans for January 2025 and unanimously praised his oversight of elections over the years.

After threats against local election workers during the 2020 Biden-Trump race, Callanen said this would be his last presidential election.

But she said she decided to persist through another difficult election to give the county time to conduct a national search for a suitable replacement.

“It was essential to be able to continue to offer everyone the election they deserve,” Callanen said.

These 2020 threats against local election officials were fueled by President Trump’s false claims that the national election was rigged.

She said similar threats have already begun to emerge in the run-up to November’s presidential election.

County Judge Peter Sakai, who also heads the county election commission, said the national search for Callanen’s replacement would run concurrently with his final months in office and he promised a smooth transition to a new administrator elections.

“We will ask the commissioners court to do a succession plan to do a national search, pay for the resources to do that and then we will look for a successor during that period,” Sakai said.

Callanen also helped administer elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also transformed the county into “super” polling stations, or a system where voters could cast their ballots at any polling station, regardless of precinct.

But there have been lawsuits against the county for its handling of some elections, which is not uncommon nationally for election administrators in today’s election environment. She was criticized for reducing the number of polling places to save the county money, saying “super” polling places would be enough.

Some voting rights groups and volunteer voter registration workers said Callanen did not support their efforts. Some said they had been fired by the electoral office for simple administrative errors.