“For Pelosi to win almost 20 GOPers would have had to vote for her, and that was not going to happen.”
Actually, all it would have taken is for 40 Republicans to vote “Present” (which, thankfully, only one Republican did), and Pelosi could have received a majority of those that voted for a person (which is the actual requirement). So, yeah, Mia Love would be incorrect had she said that voting for Webster or something could have gotten Pelosi elected, but had she voted “Present” (which, given that she thought that the other Republicans running would be even worse Speakers than Boehner, is presumably what she was considering) and a few dozen other anti-Boehner Republicans done the same, it certainly could have gotten Pelosi elected.
Actually, all it would have taken is for 40 Republicans to vote “Present” (which, thankfully, only one Republican did), and Pelosi could have received a majority of those that voted for a person (which is the actual requirement)The correct requirement is a majority of the votes cast, not whether they are for a person or not.A vote cast for "Present" is still a vote cast.
Since there were 408 votes cast, the majority threshold remains at 205.