The longest vote for US House Speaker lasted two months
- Published
In 1856, abolitionist Nathaniel Banks was finally elected after 133 ballots
If you think US House of Representatives' failure to elect a Speaker is moving at a glacial pace after 11 votes over three days, that's only by modern standards.
Americans last witnessed a Speaker election like this one a century ago, in 1923, when another Republican rebellion led to nine rounds of voting.
But even that might be considered fairly speedy by the standards of lawmakers in 1855.
That year, as the 34th Congress kicked off, it took a record two months - and 133 ballots - to elect a Speaker.
In the 234-year history of the body, only 14 Speaker elections have required multiple ballots, and only seven of them have required more than 10.
In December 1855, William Richardson - a pro-slavery Democrat from Illinois - was up against abolitionist Nathaniel Banks from Massachusetts, who belonged to the American Party, a populist faction that opposed slavery and immigration.
Only 113 votes were needed to reach a majority in the House of Representatives at the time, but the topic of slavery drove a deep wedge through the chamber.
By the 33rd ballot, Mr Banks had won 100 votes, several shy of the majority.
By late January, as the election dragged on, frustration morphed into fury when a member of the New-York Tribune, who supported Mr Banks, was attacked by a pro-slavery Democrat, congressman Albert Rust from Arkansas, outside the Capitol.
In February, Democrats switched allegiance from Mr Richardson to Representative William Aiken Jr of South Carolina.
At the same time, Congress discussed shifting from a majority-vote system to a plurality. That meant a winner could be picked even if he - they were all men back then - did not win half the vote.
On 2 February, the plurality-vote system was agreed upon, helping Mr Banks secure the victory 103-100 over Mr Aiken.
Incidentally, if there were a plurality vote today, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican frontrunner, would lose to Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.