Approximately how many voters in town will vote for Thompson?

Question

A newspaper takes a random sample of 140 voters in a town with 3,500 registered voters. In the sample 67 voters said they would vote for Thompson. Approximately how many voters in town will vote for Thompson?

Answer 1

Hi Kylee,

 

This is a proportion or ratio problem. The best way to handle these problems is:
- Set it up as fractions equal to each other.
- Be very careful where you put the x (the unknown)
- Cross-multiply to solve.

 

So our formula is ...

     140/3500 = 67/x
When we cross-multiply we get ...

     140x = 3500 X 67

     140x = 234,500

     x = 1675

 

I hope that helps you handle any proportion or ratio problem.

 

Paul L.

Answer 2

The ratio of Thompson voters to those surveyed is 67/140 = 0.4785.

 

We do not know how many registered voters will vote (often the 'turnout' is not much more than 50% in an election), so all we can ESTIMATE (really, it's just a guess) is that about 48% would vote for Thompson, based on the shaky assumption that the sample (140) is a representative set of eventual voters.

 

The recent November shock should be evidence that this business of polling and estimating is really just a pseudo-scientific guessing game. The best answer to this question is "nobody knows, that's why the election is held; wait and see!"