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I am in a Political Simulator Game and we simulate, among other things, the US House of Representatives. To make a long story short the House has 16 seats, however a member who was also the Speaker of the House resigned as both Speaker and member of the House of Representatives. Therefore we have begun the process of electing a new Speaker. My problem is since during the time this vote is being held we currently only have 15/16 seats filled with a member who has been duly elected and sworn in. The Rules for the House as we have written them includes the following statement on the election of a Speaker, "A Speaker candidate shall require a majority of voting members to be elected. If no candidate achieves a majority, the process shall be redone until there is a candidate that achieves a majority." Our rules also has following provision "A majority vote, or 2/3 vote when necessary, is determined with reference only to those Members voting "Yea" or "Nay." A vote “Present” will count toward attendance and quorum only." The Rules also provide that unless our Rules say otherwise RONR is authoritative. So my question is is the total number of "voting members" only those who are currently, in our case, duly elected and sworn in or is it encompassing of all "possible voting members" in our case the number would be 16 if it includes all possible voting members OR only 15 if only including those currently having been duly elected and sworn in. I would appreciate any advice or help on this matter as it appears that our vote results will end up split that 8 are voting for Person A 6 for Person B and 1 voting "Present". 8 is a Majority out of 15, but not 16, which is why we may have an issue in determining what exactly it means by "a majority of voting members". I appreciate and thank any and all response on advice and recommendations on how to handle this issue.