The speakership vote playing out in the House is a once-in-a-century fight — literally. A House speaker election hasn’t needed multiple ballots in 100 years.
In the 200-plus years since the first two-year Congress met in 1789, such floor fights — the name given to when House members need multiple ballots to elect a speaker — have occurred just 14 times, according to the House historian.
All but one of those multi-ballot speaker elections took place before the Civil War as the two-party system was evolving. Back then, floor fights were routine.
A floor fight has only taken place once since the Civil War, exactly 100 years ago, when it took nine ballots for Rep. Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts to be elected speaker in 1923.
Here’s a look back at the history: