In a poll conducted by interviewing eligible voters in their homes

Question

In a poll conducted by interviewing eligible voters in their homes just before the recent election, incumbent candidate Kenner was significantly ahead of candidate Muratori. Nonetheless, Muratori won the recent election.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described by the statements above?

(A) The positions taken by Muratori and Kenner on many election issues were not very similar to each other
(B) Kenner had held elected office for many years before the recent election
(C) In the year leading up to the election, Kenner was implicated in a series of political scandals
(D) Six months before the recent election, the voting age was lowered by three years
(E) In the poll, supporters of Muratori were more likely than others to describe the election as important

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Official Answer

E

VeritasPrepBrian · Accepted Answer

With these paradox/discrepancy questions, the most important thing to do is to identify the paradox before you move to the answer choices. Often times you can then start to anticipate what kind of answer you'll need. Here, the discrepancy is:

1) The polls strongly favored Kenner...just hours before the election
2) But Muratori won

How could those two things be true together? Here, I'd start to anticipate some things that could have made that difference. Maybe Kenner had to withdraw from the election the night before? Or some kind of stunning news came out that ruined Kenner's candidacy? Or maybe those voters who preferred Kenner just didn't actually go out and vote, whereas those that preferred Muratori made sure to go vote.

Choice E hits on that last point - it shows why, even though most people preferred Kenner, those people didn't care enough about the election to take the time to go vote their preference, while those who preferred Muratori came out in greater force. Choice E explains the discrepancy - "prefers" doesn't necessarily mean "voted for".

If you look at D, D doesn't directly tie into the candidates (we don't know that younger voters would have preferred Muratori, so we can't say that lowering the voting age would have played a role), but more importantly the time-stamp on it proves that it's irrelevant. The polls were taken YESTERDAY so they should have been inclusive of the voting population at that time. D deals with six months ago, so it shouldn't have any bearing on the discrepancy that took place from yesterday to today.

redskull1 · Answer

Keypoint = “JUST BEFORE ELECTIONS K > M”.But M still won.

A-Not similar views.Does not prove m wins
B-K was in the elected office.No effect on M winning.If anything shows why K should win as he is the incumbent 
C-In the year leading up to the election = not correct.we are worried with just before the elections
D-Six months before.Irrelevant.What happened just before is the relevant part
E-CORRECT.considering important implies they are more likely to vote than supports of K

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marvel3001 · Answer

If someone describes election as important, does it make him/her more likely to vote in election? I think there is further assumption required for Option E to be the answer. Can somebody please help?

nightblade354 · Answer

marvel3001 , if something is more important, there is a greater chance it'll get done. I think this applies to everyone (but could be a further assumption). That said, (E) is the best choice given the other choices. All others are completely out of scope, leaving us with only one legitimate answer

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dhruva09 · Answer

vjsharma25  Can you pls explain clearly why E as option is correct. Important signifies what exactly here is not explained up to the mark, unless we had to infer something out of it.

In a poll conducted by interviewing eligible voters in their homes

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In a poll conducted by interviewing eligible voters in their homes

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