Self-study
Columnist: Support Polls can influence voters' decisions, and Support they may distort the outcome of an election since their results are much less reliable than the public believes. ████████████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ █████████ █ ███ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ██ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The columnist claims that we should ban the publication of polls during the week before an election. Why? A few reasons. Polls can influence how people vote. They’re also less reliable than people think, so can be misleading. In the week before an election, there’s also not enough time to dispute polls and correct their mistakes. Finally, only banning polls for one week minimally impairs freedom of expression.
Notable Assumptions
The columnist assumes that banning polls in the week before an election would reduce their influence over voters—in other words, that people are still influenced by such last-minute polls.
The columnist also assumes that voters have access to less-distorted sources of information that could better inform their votes in the absence of polls. Otherwise, limiting polls could hurt more than help.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
Few people are ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████
This weakens the argument, because it undermines the columnist’s assumption that banning polls in the week before an election would reduce their impact on voters. If everyone has already decided how to vote based on earlier polls, then the last week doesn’t make a difference.
b
The publication of ████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ████████ █████
This does not weaken the argument, because we can’t assume that all election races will be uneven and so not decided by polls. If it’s still possible for even elections to be unduly influenced by poll results, the author’s argument is unharmed.
c
The publication of ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████
This does not weaken the argument. In fact, this just backs up the columnist’s point that polls can influence election results by providing a specific example of how this takes place.
d
The publication of ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████████
This does not weaken the argument—it actually underscores the importance of last-minute polls, and thus affirms the columnist’s assumption that those polls make a difference.
e
Countries in which ████ █ ███ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ████████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████ █ ███ ██ ███ ██ ███████
This does not weaken the argument, because the columnist isn’t claiming that a ban would result in overall better informed citizens. This also doesn’t say that voters living under such a ban are any worse informed—and even if it did, we wouldn’t know if the ban was the cause.