Candidate X

A telephone surveyor calls you and you agree to do a survey. The survey is political in nature. After asking a number of other questions, the surveyor says, "I am now going to read you some statements about 'Candidate X'. Please tell me after I read each statement whether that statement makes you more likely to vote for Candidate X, less likely to vote for Candidate X, or does it make no difference in how you would vote." Candidate X is an incumbent who has spent several years in your state's legislature.

The surveyor then continues with the first statement: "Candidate X passed a law making it illegal to do brain teasers while driving a car. Does that make you more likely or less likely to vote for Candidate X, or does it make no difference to your vote?"

How should you answer?

Answer:

The question is not a valid question. One should respond by saying, "What you are saying is not possible. One lawmaker cannot pass a law. It takes the whole body of the legislature to do that!"

Note: If you didn't get the answer, don't feel bad. I have worked for a survey company and have asked a question like the one above perhaps hundreds of times, and never once has a single person ever picked me up on that point! (And don't ask me why the organization that we do the survey for chooses to work it that way.)