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For-profit

Civitech

Website:

civitech.io/
Type:

Voter Outreach Corporation
Formation:

2019
CEO:

Jeremy Smith

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Civitech is a for-profit B Corporation that runs voter outreach and registration campaigns for candidates and political action committees. Civitech claims to be nonpartisan despite its founder, Jeremy Smith, having worked for Democratic Party-aligned organizations in the past. Its subsidiary, Civic Government Solutions (CGS), provides these services to local governments; in September 2024, two counties in Texas were sued by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) after signing contracts with CGS. 1 2

Activity

According to its website, between its founding in 2019 and 2022,  Civitech has mailed 8.35 million voter registration forms and registered 1.77 million voters. 3

According to its 2022 yearly report, Civitech worked with 273 clients, mailed almost 2 million voter registration forms, and confirmed almost 320,000 registrations. The report further claims that the company was most active in Wisconsin, where it mailed 443,000 voter registration forms and registered 119,000 voters. 4

Also in 2022, Civitech had its first non-American client: the New Democratic Party of Canada, the country’s socialist party and third-largest nationwide political faction. 5

Clients

Civitech clients have included the Ohio Women’s Alliance Action Fund, the Connecticut Democratic Party, VoteProChoice, Relentless, Rustbelt Rising, You Can Vote, March On, Organizing Together 2020, Wisdems, the Texas Freedom Network, Georgia Shift, former U.S. Representative Katie Porter (D-CA), Virginia state Senator Aaron Rouse (D-Virginia Beach), and Texas House of Representatives candidate Madi Eden (D). Indivisible, an anti-Trump group, has repeatedly hired Civitech, particularly to use its TextOut mass-texting service, with 36 million texts sent since 2019. 6 7

Civic Government Solutions

Civic Government Solutions (CGS) is a subsidiary of Civitec, which claims to focus on advocating for assisting local governments with voter outreach and registration services. Civitech founder Jeremy Smith also works as the chief executive officer of CGS. 8 9

On September 6, 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued Travis County and Bexar County over allegations of unlawful use of taxpayer funds after the counties hired Civic Government Solutions in August to identify unregistered voters. According to Paxton, CSG is a subsidiary of “a known partisan organization,” Civitech, and therefore is ineligible to receive public funding. Paxton also argued that Texas state law prohibits county governments from sending out unsolicited voter registration forms. 10 11

On September 12, despite the lawsuit, the Bexar County Commission voted to commence a $392,700 payment to CSG. At a public meeting, several county residents objected on the grounds that CSG chief executive officer Jeremy Smith had expressed pro-Democratic Party views. Smith responded that though he has personal partisan beliefs, CSG is non-partisan. Other critics of the action claimed that CSG was the sole vendor for the County’s contract, so therefore they did not have to compete on price. One speaker stated, “none of it passes the smell test.” 12

Attorney General Paxton has threatened legal action against Harris County for considering hiring CGS. 13

Political Donations

Since its founding, employees of Civitech and associated committees have made $125,000 worth of donations to federal political candidates and PACs, all of which have gone to support Democratic Party-aligned campaigns. 14

Leadership

Jeremy Smith is the chief executive officer of Civic Government Solutions (CGS) and its parent company Civitech, which he founded in 2019. From March 2018 to April 2021, Smith founded and led Register2vote.org. During the 2016 election, Smith was the director of voter assistance in Florida for former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign. From 2011 to 2016, Smith served in the U.S. Army. 15

In April 2024, Smith appeared on the podcast Freedom Over Fascism which is described as exploring “what it takes to rebuild power and freedom for people in MAGA-captured states.” During the podcast, Smith discussed “how we can help Democrats across the country” in the 2024 election. 16

Theresa Bucci has worked as the vice president of products at Civitech since February 2022. From 2013 to 2022, Bucci worked in several roles at Leadership for Education Equity. From 2011 to 2017, Bucci ran her own consulting firm, Storytelling for Nonprofits. In 2011, she worked for the left-of-center group Center for American Progress. 17

References

  1. “Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Travis County Over Illegal Use of Taxpayer Funds to Hire Partisan Organization to Identify Potentially Unregistered Voters.” Ken Paxton Texas Attorney General. September 6, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-travis-county-over-illegal-use-taxpayer-funds-hire-partisan.
  2. Vertuno, Jim. “Texas Republican attorney general sues over voter registration efforts in Democrat strongholds.” 5 NBC DFW. September 7, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-republican-attorney-general-sues-over-voter-registration-efforts-in-democrat-strongholds/3639893/?os=nirstv&ref=app
  3. “2022 Year in Review.” Civitech. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://civitech.io/year-in-review-2022/.
  4. “2022 Year in Review.” Civitech. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://civitech.io/year-in-review-2022/.
  5. “2022 Year in Review.” Civitech. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://civitech.io/year-in-review-2022/.
  6. “Success Stories.” Civitech. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://civitech.io/success-stories/.
  7. “2020 Year in Review.” Civitech. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://civitech.io/impact-report-2020/.
  8. “Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Travis County Over Illegal Use of Taxpayer Funds to Hire Partisan Organization to Identify Potentially Unregistered Voters.” Ken Paxton Texas Attorney General. September 6, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-travis-county-over-illegal-use-taxpayer-funds-hire-partisan.
  9. Vertuno, Jim. “Texas Republican attorney general sues over voter registration efforts in Democrat strongholds.” 5 NBC DFW. September 7, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-republican-attorney-general-sues-over-voter-registration-efforts-in-democrat-strongholds/3639893/?os=nirstv&ref=app.
  10. “Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Travis County Over Illegal Use of Taxpayer Funds to Hire Partisan Organization to Identify Potentially Unregistered Voters.” Ken Paxton Texas Attorney General. September 6, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-travis-county-over-illegal-use-taxpayer-funds-hire-partisan.
  11. Vertuno, Jim. “Texas Republican attorney general sues over voter registration efforts in Democrat strongholds.” 5 NBC DFW. September 7, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-republican-attorney-general-sues-over-voter-registration-efforts-in-democrat-strongholds/3639893/?os=nirstv&ref=app.
  12. Avila, Jaie. “More questions surface about county’s controversial voter registration contract.” NEWS4SA. September 12, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.news4sanantonio.com/news/trouble-shooters/more-questions-surface-about-countys-controversial-voter-registration-contract.
  13. Vertuno, Jim. “Texas Republican attorney general sues over voter registration efforts in Democrat strongholds.” 5 NBC DFW. September 7, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-republican-attorney-general-sues-over-voter-registration-efforts-in-democrat-strongholds/3639893/?os=nirstv&ref=app
  14. “Civitech.” Open Secrets. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/civitech/summary?toprecipcycle=2020&contribcycle=2024&lobcycle=2024&outspendcycle=2022&id=D000084164&topnumcycle=A.
  15. “Jeremy Smith.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-smith-75b9186a/.
  16. “CEO Jeremy Smith Appears on Freedom Over Fascism Podcast.” Civitech. April 12, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://civitech.io/post/ceo-jeremy-smith-freedom-over-fascism-podcast/.
  17. “Theresa Bucci.” LinkedIn. Accessed September 14, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresabucci/.
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