Under a present-and-voting rule, mass abstention lets a tiny minority pass a bill.
Evidence
- Assuming a quorum of 53 House members and 18 Senate members are present when a vote is taken, a majority of those 53 House members (at least 27) and a majority of those 18 Senators (10) must vote in favor of the bill; or 3. Assuming a quorum of each house is present, a majority of those present and voting in each house must be in favor of the bill (e.g. if 53 House members are present, and 10 vote “yes” and five vote “no” and the remaining 38 do not vote, the bill passes the House; similarly, if 18 Senators are present, of which 5 vote “yes” and 3 vote “no” and the remaining 10 do not vote, the bill passes the Senate). — Adrian Vermeule, Absolute Voting Rules, 181
Categorization
- CANDY: The concrete example — 10 yes, 5 no, 38 abstaining and the bill passes — is a genuinely tweetable illustration of how voting rules can be gamed.