Data set: Politics
Do the population characteristics of each state (e. g., unemployment level, education level, age, income level, religious preferences, health insurance, and voter turnout) influence how people vote? Do these characteristics have an impact on the composition of state legislatures? In 2001, several college students collected data from 50 states on each of these factors from the U. S. Census Bureau.
a. Calculate the percent Democrat in both the lower and the upper house for each state. Then cal-culate an average of these two percents as an overall Percent Democrat variable. ( Data from Nebraska should not be included in the analysis since the state government is composed completely of nonpartisans.)
b. Formulate hypotheses about how each of the explanatory variables (the population characteristics) will influence voting patterns.
c. Form a regression model using the composition of the state governments in 2001 to test your theories.
d. Plot the residuals and check the model assumptions. State your conclusions about each hypothesis.