12:31 a.m. by Becca Aaronson

It’s still unclear the exact time that the Senate voted and approved Senate Bill 5 — and whether that vote is valid.

“There will be people who see things as they see them…I think its fair to say this is not the way the Senate should do its business,” state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, told the press. He blamed the outburst in the gallery for disrupting the Senate’s processes. “The people can’t come and create so much of a ruckus that we can’t do our job,” he said.

Standing next to Patrick, state Sen. Juan ‘Chuy’ Hinojosa, D-McAllen, agreed that this is not the way the Senate should conduct its business. But he said the Senate should not be allowed to approve a bill during a special session past the midnight deadline, at which point, the session should be concluded.

“We didn’t even know we were voting,” said Hinojosa, adding that the Republican senators knew they were voting, but he and other Democrats were off the side holding up their cell phones at the time to show the press that it was past midnight. “How can we call a vote if we can’t hear?” he asked.
texastribune.org