Given: Percentage of invalid votes = 20% Winner gets = 70% of valid votes Win by 9600 votes Calculation: Let the total number of voters be x So, total number of valid votes = (80/100) x = 0.8 x If the winner gets 70% of valid votes then the loser gets vote = 30% of valid votes So according to question, 70%of0.8x=30%of0.8x+9600 ⇒ 0.56x=0.24x+9600⇒0.32x=9600 ⇒ x=30000 ∴ Total number of votes = 30,000 Short trick: Let the total votes be 100 So valid votes = 80 Winner gets 70% of 80=56 Loser gets 30% of 80=24 Difference = 32 So 32=9600 ⇒ 1 = 300 ∴ Total votes =100×300=30,000