Election Vote Margin Math Problem
Published on August 24, 2026
Calculate the number of votes the losing candidate received in an election given the winning candidate total and the margin of victory by using subtraction.
Question
An election was conducted by two candidates. The winning candidate received 6872403 votes and won by a margin of 983516 votes. How many votes did the other candidate receive?
Answer
-
Identify the given information:
- Votes received by the winning candidate (
) = - Margin of victory (
) =
- Votes received by the winning candidate (
-
Understand the relationship between the variables:
The margin of victory is the difference between the votes of the winning candidate and the votes of the losing candidate (). -
Set up the equation to solve for
:
To find the losing candidate’s votes, we rearrange the formula: -
Perform the subtraction:Let’s calculate this step-by-step:Calculation breakdown:
-
borrow from (which borrows from ): -
-
(borrowed from ) -
(borrowed from ) -
(borrowed from ) -
(borrowed from ) -
Wait, let’s re-verify the subtraction carefully:
:
-