During the spring of 2006 the news media were already conducting opinion polls that tracked the fortunes of the major candidates hoping to become the president of the United States. One such poll conducted by Financial Dynamics showed the following results:1 €œThinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the 2008 election were held today and the candidates were Democrat [see below] and Republican [see below], for whom would you vote?€

The results were based on a sample taken May 16€“18, 2006, of 900 registered voters nationwide. 

a. If the pollsters were planning to use these results to predict the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, describe the population of interest to them.
b. Describe the actual population from which the sample was drawn.
c. Some pollsters prefer to select a sample of €œlikely€ voters. What is the difference between €œregistered voters€ and €œlikely voters€? Why is this important?
d. Is the sample selected by the pollsters representative of the population described in part a? Explain.

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Hillary Clinton (D) John McCain (R) Unsure 46 42 13 John AI Gore McCain Unsure 15 51 33 Rudy Giuliani Hillary Clinton Unsure 49 40 12 Rudy Giuliani Al Gore Unsure 37 50 13