[OC] The U.S. House of Representatives elected the Speaker of the House after 15 ballots. 1859 was the last year to require more than 15 ballots.
Submitted by JPAnalyst t3_109x3kh in dataisbeautiful
Not American ; what's ballot? How it's work? Why not just simple vote?
AFAIK they indeed voted, but the results did not determine a clear representative.
It is my understanding that it is not only needed the majority of the votes, but it has to exceed a specific number. That's why it was done multiple times.
ETA: not American either, so I expect someone to correct me.
A ballot is another word for a vote, specifically its the piece of paper you wrote it on, though it's not literal since these votes are electronic. A simple majority was all that was needed, but Democrats voted uniformly for their own candidate and republicans had enough republican rebels against their most popular candidate that they couldn't secure a simple majority of votes.
The representatives in the house have to elect a speaker. To do that, one person has to obtain a simple majority of the votes from the representatives. In all of the rounds leading up to the last one, the votes were split so that no one candidate has the majority.
Electing the Speaker of the House is like electing a Prime Minister. The Speaker is the second most powerful political position in the US government and third in line for the Presidency after the Vice President. The House has the "power of the purse" meaning it controls the money. The House acts like shareholders, the Senate like a board of directors and the President like a CEO.
Kevin McCarthy needed 218 votes from the House of Representatives to become the Speaker of the House on round 1 he didn't get enough, so another round of voting occurred a bit later fast forward 14 more rounds and by round 15 he got the votes.
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