After ousting Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, House Republicans on Wednesday kicked off the process of electing his replacement - which could take a while.

The front runners for the position are Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Leader.

Starting things off was a proposed amendment to the voting rules by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), which would require a nominee to secure 217 votes in the conference before the vote heads to the floor. The purpose of this is to avoid a repeat of the drama that occurred in January of this year, when McCarthy's election took more than a dozen ballots to win the speakership.

As The Hill notes, getting 217 votes won't be an easy feat. Per Roy's proposal:

Republicans are now voting on whether to table Roy's proposal, with Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) saying: "The amendment is flawed in many respects, personally I think it empowers a handful of people to be able to stop the movement of a Speaker’s election in its tracks."

If the motion to table is successful, the conference will move on to the secret ballot election for speaker. But if the motion to table fails, "then there would be a secondary amendment offered," according to Womack.