Please stop assuming if you don't see the Democrats strategizing and whipping, it's not happening

[StarfishSaver]

89. Good questions!

The "polling" is not any kind of a vote on whether to impeach. The question the House is dealing with now is whether to open an impeachment inquiry. In order to start a formal inquiry, the House must pass a resolution to authorize the opening of an inquiry. If a majority of Members doesn't vote for it, the resolution will fail - which, as you can imagine, would be disastrous.

As we saw during Boehner's and Ryan's terms as Speaker, it is VERY bad to hold a vote like this and have it fail when you have the majority. Speaker Pelosi has never walked into that trap - she's too good at her job and always knows when it's the right time to hold a vote so that it passes. If she doesn't have the votes, she doesn't put the measure on the floor.

And Pelosi ALWAYS knows how many votes she has at any given time - she is widely respected as the best vote counter in generations. So, this "polling" is not a vote on impeachment or even a vote on whether to open an inquiry, but an informal headcount to determine where Members are at any given time and whether a measure to open an inquiry would pass.

The fact that there aren't enough votes yet doesn't mean they won't get there. One of the benefits of keeping track the way she does is that it helps Pelosi and leadership know what needs to be done to get more support - for example, which Members are leaning yes, but need help convincing their constituents, which ones are leaning no but can be persuaded by varying degrees of pressure from their constituents or fellow Members or the Speaker herself, and which ones are firm nos and aren't worth trying to convince.

So this counting process isn't just a headcount, it's intelligence gathering as they strategize and work their way forward.

Does this help?