Speaker Elections Decided by Multiple Ballots

The House has elected a Speaker 129 times since 1789. The Speaker is elected at the beginning of the new Congress by a majority of the Representatives-elect from a selection of candidates nominated on the floor prior to the vote. Usually, those candidates are chosen separately by the majority- and minority-party caucuses in a closed-door vote before the start of a new Congress. Members-elect have three options during the election for Speaker: they may vote for a particular candidate; they may vote “present,” which registers their attendance but lowers the threshold needed to win; or they may abstain from the vote. From 1789 to 1839, lawmakers elected the Speaker using secret ballots. But since the opening of the 26th Congress (1839–1841), amid heightened sectional tensions over slavery, the House has elected the Speaker viva voce, by voice vote. In cases of an unexpected vacancy during a Congress a new Speaker is elected by a majority of the House from candidates nominated prior to the election.

There have been 16 instances of Speaker elections requiring multiple ballots (the records for the 2nd Congress, 1791–1793, are inconclusive, and the House has filled vacancies in the Speakership three times using a resolution). Thirteen multiple-ballot elections occurred before the Civil War, when party divisions were more nebulous. The last time a Speaker election required two or more votes on the floor happened in 2023.