Rep. Brad Ashford, D-Neb., has a novel idea for the upcoming speaker of the House election: Restore the secret ballot.
“The U.S. House of Representatives conducted leadership elections by secret ballot before 1839,” a release from Ashford said.
“The election of the Speaker of the House should be about who is most fit to lead this body and most able to build consensus. That is how we do it in Nebraska,” said Ashford, who submitted a bill to that effect this week.
The apparent motivation behind the procedural change is to encourage bipartisanship, a core value Ashford acts upon literally. Ashford has alternated between Republican, Democrat and Independent throughout his political career. He was elected to the U.S. House in 2013 as a Democrat.
Such a new rule could have varying effects, however. Under the current process, which will be seen next week when Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., runs for speaker, members stand and announce who they support.
A secret ballot could favor insurgent candidates of all stripes. It could also let members vote for their party’s non-preferred candidate, which could remove the threat of stripped committee assignments, pulled fundraising, and other leadership efforts that usually dissuade certain members from voting against the presumed front-runner.
“No one should cast their vote for speaker based on the fear of retribution of party bosses, or hyper-partisan special interests,” Ashford said.
“There have been widely documented accounts of retribution in the House due to previous elections for Speaker,” his release added.
