eli5: How exactly does the House of Representatives choose a Speaker and what happens if the majority isn’t unified in their choice?
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The clerk of the house asks for nominees. Generally the parties nominate their leaders and in rare cases a small group might nominate an additional choice.
Every member gets to vote for one nominee though they can also not vote or vote present. The clerk then adds up the vote for each nominee. The speaker is whoever can get a majority of the members present and voting. If no one can secure that, then the vote fails and a new vote will be taken.
Side note, while most elections are quick and done in a single vote or 2, the record for a speaker election is about 2 months and 133 votes in 1855.
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