Question

In a Pew poll of American voters, almost 80% of Democrats say the government

shutdown is a "very serious" problem for the country, while just 35% of Republicans feel
the same. 54% of the people polled were Democrats and 46% were Republicans.
(a) Overall, what percentage of American voters say the government shutdown is a
"very serious" problem for the country?
%
Answer=
(b) Set up a 2x2 probability table. Round all percentages to 2 decimal places.
Democrat
Republican
Total
Serious
Not Serious
Total

Answer 1

ANSWER-

To find the overall percentage of American voters who say the government shutdown is a "very serious" problem, we need to weigh the responses of Democrats and Republicans based on their representation in the poll.

80% of Democrats say the shutdown is a "very serious" problem, so that's .8 x 54% = 43.2%.

35% of Republicans say the shutdown is a "very serious" problem, so that's .35 x 46% = 16.1%.

Adding these two together: 43.2% + 16.1% = 59.3%.

So overall, 59.3% of American voters say the government shutdown is a "very serious" problem.