As the Bexar County Elections Department scrambled to process a backlog of voter registrations ahead of November’s election, some familiar with the office’s inner workings accused its chief of creating an unsustainable work environment.
Current and former department staffers who spoke to the Current detailed what they described as a toxic workplace full of retaliation, micromanagement and 90-hour work weeks under elections administrator Michele Carew, who took the job in March.
Amid those complaints, seven Elections Department staffers — or 20% of its workforce — have exited since Carew’s appointment, according to Winston Crump, the county’s former lead trainer of election judges. Five of those left within her first three months on the job…