⅝ of the votes were for blue. That leaves ⅜ of the votes remaining. 5/9 of the remaining ⅜ votes were for green, so you multiply 5/9 x ⅜ = 15/72 votes for green. ⅝ of the votes were for blue, so you can multiply the fraction by 9/9 to get 45/72. So 45/72 votes were for blue, and 15/72 votes were for green. That leaves 12/72 votes remaining, which were for red. Since the question says 48 votes out of the total number of votes were for red, this means 48/v = 12/72 (v = the total number of votes). Cross multiply and solve for v to get v = 288. The fraction for blue is ⅝, so you can say x/288 = ⅝ (x = the number of votes for blue). Cross multiply and solve for x to get x = 180 votes for blue.