Answer Happy

17. (10 marks) "Gerrymandering" typically refers to the attempt by the Republican Party (GOP) in the US states to redraw the electoral districts' boundaries through the state legislatures to increase their chances of getting elected in state elections. We collected the election results in various states over the last 100 years to determine whether gerrymandering is an effective political tool. The following table captures the summary statistics: Gerrymandering by GOP mean no. senate seats won sd no. senate seats won Sample size 253 23 42 used not used 196 15 58 (a) Compute a 95% confidence interval for the difference in number of senate seats won be- tween using gerrymandering and not using gerrymandering by the GOP. (b) Based on part (a), is gerrymandering an effect tool for winning electoral seats? Explain why your conclusion is probably not valid by examining the assumptions used in confidence interval calculations.