Passage Summary: An activist says council members should either say 'no' or stay out of it. However, if they all stay out of it, the public gets to vote. The activist concludes that at least one person on the council must vote 'no.'

Conclusion: At least one member of the city council is obligated to vote against the proposal.

Reasoning: Council members should either vote against a proposal or abstain, but if every member chooses to abstain, the decision is handed over to the city's voters.

Analysis: The activist provides two acceptable behaviors (voting no or abstaining) but then concludes that one specific behavior (voting no) must occur. This only follows if the alternative—everyone abstaining—leads to an outcome that must be avoided. The 'gap' here is the assumption that the matter should not be decided by the city's voters. To guarantee the conclusion, we need an assumption that prevents the 'all abstain' scenario from being an acceptable path.