letters were delivered to the house journal clerk directing the house to lock our voting machines and not unlock them until we provide express permission to do so upon our return to the capitol. so with that it is my privilege now to introduce a great fighter along time advocate in the fight for voting rights the chairman of the mexican american caucus from dallas, texas. [applause] [speaking spanish] bill: the voting legislation that has been proposed by republicans in the state house back in austin. the democrats there in washington, d.c. forbid the legislature from having a quorum so you can t continue with a vote. want to bring in texas
as you just heard, more than 50 democratic members of the texas house have left texas to stop republicans from passing the latest iteration of their voter suppression legislation, and you re going to hear primarily from some of my colleagues today, because we have so many strong voices in our caucus. we want to give them the opportunity to speak to the public, but just for everyone s awareness, procedurally how this works is, there s 150 members of the texas house. it takes two-thirds of the body present to constitute a quorum, so 100 members, and we vote in texas and we register our attendance by use of voting machines on our desks, and minutes ago, at least 57 letters were delivered to the house