Error by chair of elections panel blocks 200 speakers

The Texas House Elections Committee abruptly ended its meeting Thursday before about 200 people who traveled to the Capitol could testify on a controversial anti-voter fraud bill.

Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-deer Park, who chairs the committee and authored House Bill 6, had recessed briefly as he argued with the committee’s vice chair, Democrat Jessica González.

González wanted to hear from Rep. Nicole Collier, a fellow Democrat and chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.

“Vice Chair González, at this moment, you are not chairing this committee,” Cain said as he overrode González’s attempts to allow Collier to speak. “I’m not recognizing anyone but a member of this committee at this time.”

The meeting’s undoing came to pass for a procedural reason: Cain had not specified when the committee would reconvene, meaning the meeting must be rescheduled for a later date. He apologized to the hundreds who had made the trip to Austin to share their feedback on the bill.

“Even though I wish very much to continue today’s hearing, the rules prevent me from doing so,” he said. “Please forgive me for my error.”

This is the third-term GOP member’s first time chairing a committee during a legislative session. Cain and González did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Civil rights and voting advocacy groups slammed Cain, who had said it is standard practice not to allow nonmembers to ask questions in committees, for blocking Collier’s testimony. There are no Black members of the committee.

“Today was further evidence of the GOP efforts to silence our voices. We can no longer stand by and allow them to shut us down,” Collier said at an informal, livestreamed “citizen’s hearing” in the Capitol rotunda. “We must speak up. Today shows why it’s important we have a seat at the table.”

Common Cause Texas executive director Anthony Gutierrez said nonmembers participate in committee hearings “all the time.”

“This deviation from standard practice to prevent a Black woman from engaging in debate on a bill that would impact Black communities disproportionately is appalling,” Gutierrez said. “There is truly nothing more absurd than Briscoe Cain having to adjourn his committee hearing on his bill that would criminalize procedural mistakes people might make while voting because he made a procedural mistake.”

Those who had planned to speak Thursday immediately expressed their deep frustration.

“(Cain) has promised a future hearing on the bill, date yet to be determined,” Texas Civil Rights Project, a voting-focused advocacy group, said in a tweet. “But this is still deeply unfair to all the Texans who took time off of work and school to be there today. And it’s troubling that no effort was made to accommodate and listen to these Texans.”

The meeting had kicked off with Republican lawmakers repeating an incorrect statistic from the attorney general’s office, where officials have claimed there are 500 pending voter fraud prosecutions in the state.

Data from the attorney general’s office shows it has about 40 pending fraud prosecutions involving about 500 counts. The office has not responded to a request for comment from Hearst Newspapers as to why it has not clarified the number of prosecutions after an assistant attorney general repeatedly cited the 500 number in testimony to the Legislature earlier this month.

The overstated claims came as the committee was set to discuss House Bill 6, a voting bill that Republicans say would curb fraud. Democrats say it would criminalize even innocent mistakes.

The bill contains a provision that would make it a misdemeanor for a presiding election judges to remove poll watchers while votes are being cast. The bill would make it a felony for public officials to distribute a mail-ballot application to anyone who has not asked for one, and would also make it a felony for a person assisting a voter with disabilities to make an error on a mail ballot.

The legislation, along with a similarly wide-ranging Senate Bill 7, is among Republicans’ priorities this session. Testimony on Thursday was expected to run long with many registered to comment, including former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O’rourke.