PrepTest 128, Section 2, Question 9
A proposed amendment would allow the city council(48 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(11 more words not shown)
- Apresumes, without providing(16 more words not shown)
- Bpresumes, without providing(21 more words not shown)
- Cpresents an appeal(10 more words not shown)
- Dfails to consider(21 more words not shown)
- Ehas a premise(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The right to vote and the method of casting a vote aren't the same thing. The amendment would allow certain elections to be conducted by mail; it wouldn't eliminate voting. Calling voting sacred doesn't by itself show why people must gather in person to exercise that right.
What reason does the author give for rejecting the change? Only that voting has traditionally happened in person. Even accepting that description for this argument, why should the old method be the only acceptable one?
What we’re looking for
Imagine rejecting houses on the ground that people once lived outdoors. The historical practice wouldn't establish that the new option was worse. Likewise, the author needs a reason that mailing a ballot would be a bad way to exercise the right to vote. The flaw question asks us to identify the reliance on tradition in place of such a reason.
Working the answers
- A
This would make voting entirely by mail the only circumstance in which voting rights could be violated. The author doesn't claim that. The author could object to mail voting and also believe that other practices violate voting rights. A adds an exclusivity claim absent from the argument.
- B
The author isn't predicting that an old legal right will continue to exist. The argument recommends preserving a traditional voting method. What should be allowed is different from a prediction about what rights people will have in the future.
- CCorrect
The only reason given for rejecting voting by mail is that voting has always been conducted in person. The importance of the right doesn't establish the importance of preserving that particular method. Without a further reason to reject the change, the appeal to past practice leaves the recommendation unsupported.
- D
Whether the council would actually exercise the power is different from whether it should receive that power. Someone could oppose authorizing a practice even if the authority might never be used. This possibility doesn't identify the argument's faulty reason for rejecting the proposal.
- E
The premises and conclusion can all be true together. There is no contradiction between having traditionally voted in person and continuing to require that method. The problem is that the tradition doesn't adequately support the recommendation, not that the recommendation conflicts with a premise.
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