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Hi,
IMO E
Analysis:
A has an ambiguous “they” after because. It could refer to either rules or elections.
B changes the meaning. It’s not the rules that involve money. The modifier in the beginning seems to do so.
C has comparison error. Rules to national election.
D comparison error. Twice.
E corrects the modifier error and comparison error. In local elections to in national elections. Ambiguous they from original sentence is replaced with national elections.
So option E it is.

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The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.


(A) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

"they" is ambiguous since it could refer to either local elections or national elections.

(B) Because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse, the rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than the rules are in national elections.

it is the "local elections" which involve smaller money, not the "rules".

(C) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

Here, "national elections" and "rules that govern political contributions" are parallel. so wrong. In addition, "they" is ambiguous.

(D) Because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse than national elections, the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than national contributions.

It changes the meaning. "govern political contributions in local elections" was changed to "govern local political contributions". and "national elections" was changed to "national contributions".

(E) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

Correct
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Hello Experts,

I am fairly new to SC questions and wished to know the reason Option D is wrong. I personally think it is because of a comma splice but I am not too sure, if you could throw some light on this it would be really helpful.

Thanks and Regards.
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vmadan10
Hello Experts,

I am fairly new to SC questions and wished to know the reason Option D is wrong. I personally think it is because of a comma splice but I am not too sure, if you could throw some light on this it would be really helpful.

Thanks and Regards.
Hello, vmadan10. A comma splice occurs when there are two independent clauses joined by a comma, but with no conjunction between the clauses. Because at the head of answer (D) is a dependent clause indicator. As soon as you see because used in this way, you know you have to wait for the dependent clause to resolve before the main clause can begin. Grammatically speaking, option (D) is fine. It suffers, however, from a comparison error in the main clause:

the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than national contributions

People speak this way all the time, but the GMAT™ is downright draconian about comparing like entities with like entities, and here, strictly speaking, rules are being compared to contributions. To correct the sentence, we would need to see a proper comparison marker:

the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than those that govern national contributions

Now, rules are being compared to rules. There are different variations that could appear in the latter part of the comparison, but I guarantee that all of them would have to put rules front and center. I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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MentorTutoring Thanks for the explanation. The concept of a comma splice is clearer for me now.
Thanks once again!
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Bunuel
The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.


(A) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(B) Because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse, the rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than the rules are in national elections.

(C) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than national elections because they typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

(D) Because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse than national elections, the rules that govern local political contributions are less stringent than national contributions.

(E) The rules that govern political contributions are less stringent in local elections than they are in national elections because local elections typically involve smaller amounts of money and present less opportunity for abuse.

Hello guys!
Taking the conversation ahead,

Eliminate Option B and D, the construction seems flawed and incorrect.
Eliminate Option C as it fails to use 'than they are in', which makes the readers' life easy.
Eliminate Option A, it fails to specify who 'they' is referred to as, and that makes it ambiguous as well.

Option E is the winner with perfect usage and no errors at all!

Hit E

Official Answer:- Option E

Thanks!

Regards,
Raunak Damle :student_man:
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