In a college election with only two candidates, the winner got 58% of the valid votes and won by 4,800 votes. How many valid votes were cast?

8,276Correct answerYour answer11,429Correct answerYour answer30,000Correct answerYour answer60,000Correct answerYour answer

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CorrectNot quiteAnswer C

Correct answer: C

Loser's share = $100\% - 58\% = 42\%$ .
Winning margin = $58\% - 42\% = 16\%$ of the valid votes.
16% of valid votes = 4,800, so valid votes = $\frac{4800}{16} \times 100 = 30{,}000$ .

Worth noting

The margin is the gap between the two shares (16%), not $58\% - 50\% = 8\%$ , which gives 60,000.

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