CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The U.S. House of Representatives remains in a deadlock on who will become the next speaker.

Now, the University of Virginia Center for Politics explains other possible avenues that could be taken to elect someone.

"Until we have a speaker or until members are sworn in, we can't do anything," said J. Miles Coleman with the UVA Center for Politics.

It's been three days and Washington, D.C. is still in a deadlock. On Thursday, the divided Republican Party managed to push the process to an 11th ballot before adjourning.

This hasn't happened since before the Civil War. Coleman says he expected some conflict.

"As soon as I the Republicans on election night, or last month, had one a very small majority, I knew Kevin McCarthy would be uncomfortable, but not this uncomfortable," he said.

He says this isn't the first time a small group has disturbed voting.

"In some ways, it's almost not new, because the Freedom Caucus is the same group that gave Jon Boehner and Paul Ryan issues, our previous Republican speakers," Coleman said.

But is there any way to get around a group like this and elect a speaker? Coleman thinks plurality voting is one way to do it.

"Yeah, so that's possible but to do that, sort of counter-intuitively almost, they would need a majority to change it to a plurality," he said. “I would say changing it to a plurality for both sides would be a very high-risk, high-reward type of move."

Another possibility is anonymous voting, but Coleman doesn't think this would ever happen.

"I'm not an expert on constitutional law but I would say it would not be able to go into secret, but it would be much easier I'll give you that," he said.

Until a solution is reached, votes will still be counted the way they have been.

"It’s more than just having a speaker, it’s about having a functioning government," said Coleman.

Technically speaking, Coleman says until a speaker has been elected, the United States has no government. As a result, this could hurt the country from a national security and constituent service perspective.