percentage vote B gets?

[kartikdave]

In a particular election, everyone votes for either candidate A or candidate B. After 60% of the votes are counted, candidate A is leading 60% to 40%. What percentage of the remaining votes must B get in order to have the same number of votes as A?

(a) 60
(b) 65
(c) 66 2/3
(d) 70
(e) 75

Source: BTG Forum

[kramacha1979]

I would use smart numbers to solve this problem. Since no actual #s are given we can use smart numbers such as 100
Say total # votes are = 100

60% of it has been counted = 60

Out of 60, 60% is for Cand A = 36
40% of 60 is for B = 24

Let's assume that Candidate B get X votes out of remaining 40 and Candidate A gets 40-x

36 + 40-x = 24 + x

X = 26; Now since we need to calculate the % back which is what % of 40 is 26
Hence ans : 65 %

What's the OA ?

[kramacha1979]

I was thinking of an easier method and this problem can be solved by weighted averages

Assume A needs some X % out of the remaining 40 and B would need to get (100-X) % of the remaining 40



60% 60 + X% 40 = 40% 60 + (100-X) % 40


X = 35, so 100-x = 65 %

[kartikdave]

Yupe. OA is 65% Thanks for showing both methods.

[JonathanSchneider]

Nicely done guys. As for the weighted averages method shown above, you could have also listed the X on the other side, since that's what you're solving for. This way you won't confuse the final step. Thus, you'd have:

60% 60 + (100 - X)% 40 = 40% 60 + (X)% 40

Of course, either way you should realize that we need the answer to be above 50%, so even if 35% were an answer, you should know to avoid it.