Laurie Fulkerson Was in Charge of Marketing Research for Jeff

Laurie Fulkerson was in charge of marketing research for Jeff Rogers, a candidate for mayor. No research had been undertaken as it was very early in the campaign. The consensus was that Jeff and his opponent, Elvis Dean, were very close in voter preference. Laurie was negotiating with the research firm that was going to do a survey. She told the project director that she wanted to estimate the percentage of registered voters who would vote for each candidate if the election were to be held at the time of the survey. She also said she wanted to be very confident (99 percent) that the estimate was very accurate, that is, between + 1 percent. The project director quickly estimated that the sample size would be very large and told Laurie that she estimated the study would cost more than $50,000. Shocked at the price, Laurie asked the project director to cut the sample size down to one-fourth of what she estimated. What should the project director tell Laurie?

A) that it is impossible to do a study with a sample size this small
B) that the sample size can be cut, but it means that the confidence interval that will be calculated around the estimate will be much smaller
C) that the sample size can be cut, but it means that the confidence interval that will be calculated around the estimate will be much larger but still under the + 1 percent
D) that the sample size can be cut, but it means that the confidence interval that will be calculated around the estimate will be much larger, that is, far greater than the + 1 percent
E) that it is fine to cut the sample size for the only impact will be reducing the length of time it takes to do the study