eli5: How exactly does the House of Representatives choose a Speaker and what happens if the majority isn’t unified in their choice?

Question

eli5: How exactly does the House of Representatives choose a Speaker and what happens if the majority isn’t unified in their choice?

In: 3

Answer 1

They do a roll call vote. Each party chooses a nominee, and then every member of the house casts a vote. Because there’s basically always just two parties in the House, the party with the most seats gets their nominee as speaker. If no one wins a majority, they vote again. In 1923 they had to vote 9 times.