Constitutional Requirement
Article I, Section 2 of the US Constitution states that, “The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers.”
Timing
By law (2 USC Sec. 25), the Speaker must be sworn prior to any other business. As a result, the election takes place at the start of each new Congress, as soon as a quorum has been established. For the upcoming 114th Congress, it is scheduled to occur on Tuesday, January 6, 2015.
Process
The Clerk of the House accepts nominations from the floor. A member of each Leadership—the respective conference and caucus chairmen—nominates one candidate from each party. Reps. John Boehner (R-OH) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will receive these party nominations in the 114th Congress. The Clerk then asks the rest of the House whether there are any further nominations. Once the slate of nominees is set, the Clerk begins the roll call vote which proceeds in alphabetic order by surname. When called upon, members respond orally with their vote (viva voche).
Required Vote Threshold
According to the precedents of the House, an absolute majority of “the total number of votes cast for a person by name” is required to elect a Speaker. Abstentions, “present” votes, and of course, missed votes are not counted towards the total number of votes cast for a person. For example, voting present lowers the total number of votes needed for a nominee to achieve a majority. If the full House is sworn in and voting, a majority of the full membership is 218.
(Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) will not be sworn in for the 114th Congress as a result of his resignation, but a majority of the full members is still 218.) Again, a plurality is not sufficient to be chosen Speaker. If a majority is not obtained on the first ballot, there are subsequent ballots until a winner receives enough votes.
No Voting Restrictions There are no restrictions for whom Members may vote. They do not have to vote for the nominees or even a Member of the House of Representatives (the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a Member, although it always has).
For instance, in 2013, Rep. Boehner received 220 votes, Rep. Pelosi received 192 votes, while Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Jim Cooper (D-TN), John Dingell (D-MI), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Raul Labrador (R-ID), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), and non-Members Colin Powell, David Walker, and former Rep. Allen West all received votes.
Potential Impact of Democrats
Since they comprise the Majority party, as long as Republicans vote for some candidate by name (i.e., not missing the vote or voting present), the Democrat nominee cannot be elected without GOP votes simply because there are multiple candidates receiving votes.
And in the unlikely event that a large group of Republicans missed the vote or voted present, the result would be quickly reversed by the full Republican Majority by vacating the Speaker chair and starting anew. There is no way that Rep. Pelosi will be the Speaker in the 114th Congress without Republican votes.
Potential Impact of Republican Dissenters
A sufficiently large block of Republicans—29 Members with the current political composition of the House (246 GOP-188 Democrats)—can prevent their party’s nominee from achieving the necessary majority to be elected Speaker.
For instance, in 1923, the progressive wing of the Republican Party blocked a Republican from being Speaker until some of their procedural demands were adopted. This occurred over three days and nine different ballots. Similarly the House has seen lengthier delays in electing the Speaker. In 1849, the House required over 59 ballots and 19 days to elect a Speaker. In 1856, more than 129 ballots were required.
“(Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) will not be sworn in for the 114th Congress as a result of his resignation, but a majority of the full members is still 218.) Again, a plurality is not sufficient to be chosen Speaker. If a majority is not obtained on the first ballot, there are subsequent ballots until a winner receives enough votes.”
The good folks at Heritage are wrong when they claim that a majority of *membership* being required to elect a Speaker. Four times in our history has the Speaker been elected by less than a majority of the House membership, with the most recent instance being in 1997, when Newt Gingrich was elected with only 216 votes for him. Here’s the full historical analysis from the Congressional Research Service: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/202873.pdf
As you can see from the report, the actual requirement is that the Speaker must receive a majority of votes *cast for an actual person*, so vacancies, abstentions and botes cast as “Present” aren’t included in the denominator. Thus, if 29 Republican Representatives vote “Present” as a protest against Boehner, Boehner would be reelected Speaker with 217 (Republican) votes for him to 188 (Democrat) votes for Pelosi, with 29 Representatives voting “Present” and 1 vacancy; actually, some of the Democrats might refuse to vote for Pelosi and vote for some other Democrat, as they did 2 and 4 years ago, but none of them will vote for Boehner (unless they switch party), given that the only member of either major party at least in the past century to vote for a Speaker from the party was denied a committee assignment (Democrat Jim Traficant in 2001, who voted for Republican Dennis Hastert and was disowned by Democrats but not given GOP committee assignments either). The only way that a large number of abstentions or votes as “Present” could affect the Speaker election is if 60+ Republicans vote “present” and it results in *Pelosi* being elected Speaker.
So the only way in which a Republican other than Boehner may be elected Speaker is if individual persons receive, in the aggregate, 29+ Republican votes. Now that Gohmert has announced his candidacy (following Yoho), this is now a possibility, albeit still very unlikely. If recent history holds, many of the folks who say “I’m not voting for Boehner” will vote “Present” instead, which will reduce the number of votes that Boehner needs to win. And how many Republicans really wil be voting to keep Boehner from winning and to start a long, pritracted struggle in which no candidate has a majority? Keep in mind that Boehner was renominated as Speaker by the GOP House conference *with no opposition* a month and a half ago, so neither Gohmert nor Yoho, nor anyone else, was willing to throw his hat in the ring, and getting 12% of House Republicans to vote for someone other than the official GOP nominee. And even if Gohmert et al add up to 29 votes, and Boehner gets the message and steps down as a candidate, you know that one of his leadership- team members (maybe McCarthy) will run for Speaker, and get elected over Gohmert and Pelosi.
The time for a coup was when the GOP House conference met in November, not now. There’s a 99% chance that this is all kabuki theater.
They do not have to vote for the nominees or even a Member of the House of Representatives (the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a Member, although it always has).
Alan WesT?????