Question

Two hundred representatives weakly support A and strongly oppose B. Two hundred representatives weakly support B and strongly oppose A. The remaining 35 representatives weakly support both bills. The Speaker of the House is deciding whether to combine Bills A and B (so that representatives can only vote for both A and B or against A and B) or submit them to the House as separate, not linked, bills.

(a) What outcome is expected if the bills are combined? If they are separated?

(b) Which result better accounts for preference intensity?

Answer 1

a)If the bills are presented separately, both the bills should go through with 235 votes each since the remaining 35 representatives become the key deciding factor after both groups cancel out each others votes.Hence the eak support for both bills by the 35 reps means they go through.

If both bills are combined,the new bill has no chance of passing since it will only receive 35 votes given the intensity of preferences means both sets of voters will vote against the new bill given the relative preferences they possess.

b)The combined bill accounts for intensity of prefernce better since voters vote based on relative preference for the two sections of the combined new bill.