Nancy Pelosi was elected House speaker Thursday afternoon as expected, but not without some Democratic defections — one of whom preferred someone totally unexpected.
A total of 15 Democrats voted for someone other than Pelosi, with three voting "present," per Talking Point Memo's Cameron Joseph. Everyone else voted for candidates who had not actually been nominated, with the most surprising name being tossed out by Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-N.Y.): he voted for former Vice President Joe Biden.
This vote was counted, and as CBS News' Mark Knoller points out, there's actually no constitutional requirement for a House speaker to even be a member of the House of Representatives, although no non-member has even been elected to that position.
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Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) also received four votes for speaker, the most votes among any of these Democratic "candidates" who weren't actually in the running for the job. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) also voted for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
Not every Pelosi defector had their initial vote against her successfully counted, though: Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.) tried to vote for "no," which he isn't actually allowed to do. Politico's Jake Sherman said on Twitter that he told Van Drew months ago that voting "no" isn't possible, but he did so anyway; his vote was later changed to "present."
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