Question

In an election between two candidates the candidate who gets 30% of the votes polled is defeated by 16000 votes what is the total number of votes polled

Answer 1

Solution: Let us assume that the total number of votes polled = x

We know that the losing candidate has got 30% of votes. It means the winning candidate has got 100% - 30% = 70%

Also, we know that the difference between the votes obtained by winning candidate and votes obtained by losing candidate is 16000

Therefore, we have:

70% of x - 30% of x = 16000

$\frac{70}{100} \times x - \frac{30}{100} \times x = 16000$

$0.7 \times x - 0.4 \times x = 16000$

$0.4 \times x = 16000$

$x=\frac{16000}{0.4}=40000$

Therefore, the total number of votes polled is 40000