62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves

Question

62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves Democrats. Despite this, for the past 3 elections, the citizens of state W have voted a Republican into the office as governor.

Which of the following if true,could best explain this apparent incongruity in the results of the past 3 elections in state W?

A) Approximately 78% of the rural residents of state W decalred themselves republicans, as compared with 38% of the urban residents.
B) State elections consist of a primary election in which voters must vote for a candidate matching their declared party followed by a general election in which voters can vote for a candidate of any party.
C) Over the past 5 elections, the percentage of declared republicans who voted was significantly higher than the percentage of declared democrate who voted.
D) Voters must declare a party of preference more than thirty days before the state' primary election, and voters with no declared preference are ineligible to vote in the primary.
E) The state's last democratic governor was initially very popular but lost his bid for re-election after the state's economy suffered a severe recession.

Found this and many similar problems in veritas prep CAT and have a serious doubt about OA provided. 
Would request experts to take a look and suggest explanation

ngould · Accepted Answer

I am no expert, but I think that I understand the question.

If there are more Democrats than Republicans in state W, then the only way for a Republican to win the election is for a greater percentage of Republicans to vote than Democrats. You must remember that not all voters cast a vote in an election.

Here is another way to look at it. Say there are only 100 people in state W, 62 Democrats (for 62 percent) and 38 Republicans. So if the voter turnout for the Republican party was 100 percent (all 38 voters voted) and the voter turnout for the Democrats was 50 percent (only 31 Democrats voted), the Republican party would win the election. Remember that is says in choice C that the  percentage of declared Republicans who voted was significantly higher than the percentage of declared Democrats who voted.

Choice C appears to be the correct answer.

I hope that you are able to follow my logic and that this is helpful.

KarishmaB · Answer

@Vips: There is a reason CR is a part of Verbal. The arguments given to you do not involve deductive logic. They are faulty/weak. That is the reason you can strengthen/weaken them. When you are given an argument and are asked to strengthen it, you do not try to prove beyond doubt that the argument is true. You only increase its strength. It can still be weakened with some other data. It's all about the degree of strength.

Similarly, when you have a paradox question, you are looking for an explanation that can help resolve the paradox. 
Given that 62% voters are Democrats and 38% are Republicans, why is it that Republicans have been in office? Because Republicans go out to vote while Democrats sit at home! Yeah, that COULD explain the paradox (with the right numbers). We don't know what the numbers are but this option certainly provides a possible explanation. Do not look for perfect numbers - you are only given ideas and you have to deduce from those.

gmatchase · Answer

Between B & C, I choose C. My explanations are highlighted.

souvik101990 · Answer

I think its a great question
Tough one 
Definitely C
what is bugging you Vips?
Let me know!

Vips0000 · Answer

Thanks Souvik. If you focus on word play in option C, it talks about 'percentage' not the 'number'. eg. 90% of 100 is lesser than 80% of 200. Therefore C can not be the answer, it leaves gap.
You take?

Vips0000 · Answer

Gmatchase and ngould,
If the option said number instead of percentage, it would have been correct in my opinion. 
The same example that ngould gave, 100% of 38 is 38, and 80% of 62 is greater than 38. Here, even if percentage of republican is higher total number of votes wouldnt be. Clearly C is not enough evidence to fill the gap.

gmatchase · Answer

I see what you are saying. Hmm..... would you pick any other choice? If not, we can say C is best of the worst?

Vips0000 · Answer

Not really :D if we chose best among worst. B also stands as a contender.

Jp27 · Answer

hey - the question says "62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves Democrats" so the base doesn't change. That the problem in your statement above.

so 62% OF ALL REGISTERED VOTERS declared themselves Democrats
38 % OF ALL REGISTERED VOTERS declared themselves R

Per C, Over the past 5 elections, the percentage of declared republicans who voted was significantly higher than the percentage of declared democrate who voted.

Now if only 10 % of the declared Democrats voted and 20% of the declared R voted then Republican would be running office...

Cheers

Vips0000 · Answer

This is half cooked analysis.

consider one example: total voters are 100. Democrats =62 and Republican =38
Note:100 number is chosen for simplicty and numbers below are approximates (rounded up to next integer)

Now if 10% of democrate vote = around 6
if 20% of republican vote = around 8.
Republican win

But if 
100% republican vote = 38 vote
only 70% of democrate vote = 44 vote
Democrate win

How is it sufficient?

Jp27 · Answer

In explain the Discrepancy CR we are asked to select an answer that can show us how the 2 situation can / could be true... we are NOT asked to prove the statements....

hermit84 · Answer

Vips, Lets not confuse CR with DS

. When asked to resolve a paradox, all you need to find a possible explanation of the discrepancy, without negating any of the two contradictory facts. You have shown a case where C being(cudnt use a better word

) true perfectly bridges the gap b/w two contradictions. Hope that helps, if it does...kudos pls..! :-D

Vips0000 · Answer

sorry hermit, but not satisfactory. its not about DS, but in critital reasoning if a reason has loopholes (as shown with one example) its not a good enough reason and doesnt help to bridge the gap. I'll forward this question to veritas prep and would check with them..

vomhorizon · Answer

Agreed ! However, we must also choose the best OPTION available to us? The four remaining answers are less likely to be correct as compared to C...Even if their is a theoretical possibility that C might not be incorrect. The Official GMAT questions would probably not have such a vague answer choice, as the Test makers make it a priority to create answer choices where the CORRECT answer is UN DISPUTABLE (or as un disputable as possible) ..

As Vips has pointed out, There is a huge QUESTION MARK on C, and it would be safe to call this answer choice DISPUTABLE .. Even if it is the best choice of the LOT..I would call it a rather Poor question given that in the entire OG13 and 12 i am yet to come across a question that has an OA that is this debatable. As a Logic question it might a good an excellent question but i doubt that it is a realistic GMAT question from my experience with the OG and other official GMAT questions..

KarishmaB · Answer

Check this link to understand what I mean by 'you can provide more data to turn an option your way'. You have to focus on what CAN provide you an explanation. the-rate-of-violent-crime-in-this-state-is-up-35-percent-141548.html#p1145280

vomhorizon · Answer

I agree with Karishma on this. With paradox questions we have to provide an answer choice that IF TAKEN TO BE TRUE, helps to resolve the paradox, therefore any answer choice that if true helps to resolve the paradox (but needent totally obliterate any doubt which may still remain) is VALID. Just like STRENGHTEN and JUSTIFY THE CONCLUSION questions, in the former we are only required to strenghten the argument by 1% (say) while in the latter category we must prove without all doubt that the correct answer choice JUSTIFIES the author's conclusion.

amirfarzam82 · Answer

Please be careful on the tricky words:

Deceleration of sth does not that means Doing sth:

62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves Democrats - See more at: https://gmatclub.com/blog/2015/07/gmat-q ... La5U2.dpuf.

So the questionable section is whether all 62 % ( who declared Democrat) have voted or no? May just 20% of mentioned people vote. 8-)

kevolution · Answer

Not sure if this might help, but the answer choice C mentions that the percentages are SIGNIFICANTLY higher. So, the OP's argument of 90% of 100 is lesser than 80% of 200 wouldn't really work (I don't think 10% is considered significant in the GMAT -- even though this may be vague). Also, if you pick B, that answer choice doesn't resolve anything as the voters can vote any party, so how would that be better than C?

I think this is one of those pick the least worst answer choice, but in my experience doing Verbal questions, it seems like the answer choices with the word "significantly" aren't treated as vague but more to dissolve the confusion between comparison. Although everyone's definition of significant in real world situations is different, on test questions it means it's enough to make an impact.

mvictor · Answer

not the first time when I say it, but Solve the paradox is one of my favorite type of questions on CR.

62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves Democrats. Despite this, for the past 3 elections, the citizens of state W have voted a Republican into the office as governor.

ok, so 62% of voters are D.
nevertheless, last 3 E -> republicans won.

how come so?

well, if to pre-think, it might be the case that voters who declared themselves democrats did not vote.

moreover, for paradox type of questions, we can use the below formula:

Because -correct answer choice-, Republicans won, while 62% of registered voters are Democrats.

A) Approximately 78% of the rural residents of state W decalred themselves republicans, as compared with 38% of the urban residents.
irrelevant. we are told that 62% of all voters in the state are democrats. so it is all together rural+urban. thus, out.

B) State elections consist of a primary election in which voters must vote for a candidate matching their declared party followed by a general election in which voters can vote for a candidate of any party.
well, this is confusing. state elections - first vote for candidate matching declared party, but then there is general election, in which people can vote for candidates of any party.
but we are interested in elections for governor. what does this all have to do with state/general election? suspect, but let's check other answer choices.

C) Over the past 5 elections, the percentage of declared republicans who voted was significantly higher than the percentage of declared democrate who voted.
aha, so if more republicans than democrats actually voted, then the triumph of the republican candidates is thus explained. this one looks better than suspicious B, so B can be eliminated.

D) Voters must declare a party of preference more than thirty days before the state' primary election, and voters with no declared preference are ineligible to vote in the primary.
this one is irrelevant, as it does not help to explain the discrepancy.

E) The state's last democratic governor was initially very popular but lost his bid for re-election after the state's economy suffered a severe recession.
last democratic governor - well, from the beginning out. it does not explain the discrepancy.

few more words on C.
suppose we have 1000 voters, 620 of the voters are democrats, 380 are republicans. if during the elections participated only 310 democrats while 380 republicans, then democrats have no way to win the elections. since we are told that out of the people who actually voted were more republicans, it means that not all the registered democrats actually voted.
C so far is the best answer.

62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves

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62% of the registered voters in state W declared themselves

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