There are 435 members of the House, so it would seem a majority would be 218 votes. Everything I hear is that only 217 votes are needed. That would be a 217-218 minority. What is the story?
There are 433 current sitting members of the House; two seats are vacant. 433 divided by two is 216.5. Round up to 217 for a one vote majority.
In general, there are often one or two seats vacant in the House. Senators can be replaced immediately, through whatever process their state sets (typically appointment by the Governor), but because there are more Representatives, their terms are shorter, and they’re supposed to be the direct representative of The People, when there’s a vacancy in the House, it just remains vacant until the next election.
State laws vary on this, but elections always occur in year one, but as state laws rule in year two.
All states, territories, and districts require special elections to fill any vacant House seats during the first session of a Congress. During the second session of a Congress, however, procedures often vary depending on the amount of time between the vacancy and the next general election. Section 8 of Title 2, United States Code, provides that a state governor can cause a special election in extraordinary circumstances; namely, a crisis in which the number of House vacancies exceeds 100.
I posted this in a different thread.
In the latest election, 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats voted, for a total of 432. The missing Republican for this vote was M. Bilirakis, who was attending a funeral, and is expected to participate in later votes.
Representatives are also allowed to vote “present”, which reduces by one the total number counted as voting, thus can reduce the majority number needed if enough vote this way.
Yes, the key phrase is that the Speaker must be elected by a majority of members “present and voting.” Any members not voting for any reason – deceased, at their nephew’s birthday, or simply answering “present” to the roll call – do not count in the tabulation of what constitutes a majority.
I was curious and looked it up so I’ll save some of you the trouble.
Dave Cicilline resigned to become president and chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Foundation.
Chris Stewart resigned because his wife is having health issues.
That is what he said.
Chris Stewart launches new lobbying firm days after leaving Congress
Well damn.
Why couldn’t either of them just wait until the end of their term or just let someone who wanted to do it run?
No, it remains vacant until the next special election, as the Constitution requires vacancies in the House of Representatives to be filled.
As @Exapno_Mapcase cited above, it depends on the timing. If the vacancy occurs within six months of the next general election date, some states forgo a special election and simply allow the seat to remain vacant for the remainder of that Congress. A helpful Congressional Research Service report on the subject.
Not that it’s relevant at the moment since Congress is in its first session, but I’d be curious which states leave a vacant seat open in the 2nd session. Google isn’t proving very useful this morning.
Ballotpedia would normally be my go-to on questions like this, but I’m likewise coming up dry. As one example, in California, when a vacancy occurs in a congressional office after the close of the nomination period in the final year of the term of office, the Governor may decline to schedule a special election. (PDF cite, page 7)
I assume there’s no way to defer an individual’s vote? For example, could all the Democrats in congress simply defer, see if someone else got more than 5 votes, and then afterwards all vote for that guy instead? I seem to recall in some other contest (Impeachment?) there were those who reserved their vote until the end, or was that a senate thing?
For the Speaker vote, the clerk reads through the list of members in alphabetical order, recording each one’s vote. After completing the roll call, the clerk will read through the names of any members who did not respond to the initial roll call, allowing them one more chance to vote. After the tellers have tabulated and agreed on the final count, the Speaker pro tem announces the outcome.
This might be the hardest logjam since The Big Lebowski.
Excerpt
“There’s only one person that can do it all the way. You know who that is? Jesus Christ,” former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner and de facto party leader, said on Monday in New Hampshire. “If Jesus came down and said, ‘I want to be speaker,’ he would do it. Other than that, I haven’t seen anybody that can guarantee it.”
Republicans have made no secret of their divisions. They openly refer to their various factions as The Five Families — a reference to warring Mafia crime families. They consist of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, the conservative Republican Study Committee, the business-minded Main Street Caucus, the mainstream Republican Governance Group and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
[Monty Python} She got better. [/Monty Python}
During the vote a few days ago, after finishing the second roll call, members were further invited to appear in person at the well of the room in order to vote in person, and it looked like a couple of members took advantage of this. I’m not sure why this was done, maybe if they were overlooked, or for privacy?