If the House Republican Conference Used Ranked Choice Voting, they would Know which Candiate for Speaker had the Most Support

The current state of the House GOP can be succinctly described as follows: roughly two dozen Members from each ideological camp refuse to support the Speaker choice of the opposing camp.

This has resulted in a continuous cycle of turmoil within the conference, with both sides staunchly believing they have the upper hand in support.

But what if there was a method to conclusively ascertain which candidate holds the majority support within the House GOP caucus?

Indeed, there is.

It’s known as Ranked Choice Voting.

Update 10/23/23:The House GOP conference does use a form of Ranked choice voting, according to the House GOP Conference rules found here:

Balloting Procedures.—When there are more than two candidates for any office and none receives a majority of the votes on the first ballot, a quorum being present, the candidate with the lowest number of votes on that and each succeeding ballot will be dropped from the ballot until one candidate receives a majority of the votes, a quorum being present.

The votes for the candidate’s lowest vote total are redistributed to the rest of the candidates by a revote, as opposed to using a list that the voter prepared when they voted once in a traditional ranked choice voting system.