Storable Votes and Judicial Nominations in the U.S. Senate

27 Pages Posted: 15 Sep 2014 Last revised: 29 May 2023

See all articles by Alessandra Casella

Alessandra Casella

Columbia University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Sebastien Turban

California Institute of Technology - Economics

Gregory Wawro

Columbia University - Department of Political Science

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Date Written: September 2014

Abstract

We model a procedural reform aimed at restoring a proper role for the minority in the confirmation process of judicial nominations in the U.S. Senate. We analyze a proposal that would call for nominations to the same level court to be collected in periodic lists and voted upon individually with Storable Votes, allowing each senator to allocate freely a fixed number of total votes. Although each nomination is decided by simple majority, storable votes make it possible for the minority to win occasionally, but only when the relative importance its members assign to a nomination is higher than the relative importance assigned by the majority. Numerical simulations, motivated by a game theoretic model, show that under plausible assumptions a minority of 45 senators would be able to block between 20 and 35 percent of nominees. For most parameter values, the possibility of minority victories increases aggregate welfare.

Suggested Citation

Casella, Alessandra and Turban, Sebastien and Wawro, Gregory, Storable Votes and Judicial Nominations in the U.S. Senate (September 2014). NBER Working Paper No. w20461, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2496228

Alessandra Casella (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Sebastien Turban

California Institute of Technology - Economics ( email )

United States
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Gregory Wawro

Columbia University - Department of Political Science ( email )

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420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
United States

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