So I imagine that the lines became maxed out again with a relatively equal number of votes for each contestant with the winner based on the difference, the minor vagaries, of each incoming line's hardware.

American Idol Secret - Impossibility of Counting Votes
rpvm (847 ) View Listings | Report May-25-06 13:39 PDT
I can't believe that there hasn't been any real questioning of the fact that the last three contestants on Idol received almost the identical number of votes. Any mathematically inclined individual would be quick to point out the statistical improbability, the miracle this would entail.

They say that 50 million people voted during two hours for three people on six lines. Impossible. There isn't a phone system yet that can collect information from 1/5 of the population of these United States (250 million) calling in two hours. That is why many people get busy signals. The only calls that are processed are the ones that are able to be handled by the phone lines. The three lines were maxed out. There is no other plausible explanation for this occurence.

There is one company that has predicted the results of almost every competetion by dialing to the different voting numbers and noting which ones had the least number of busy signals. The ones with the least busy signals had the lowest overflow and therefore the fewest votes. According to their records, only one out of every four got through on the last night.

Why else would American Idol deem it necessary to double the amount of phone lines and then double the call-in time for the last event? Essentially this quadrupled their ability to handle incoming calls, but still were about 75 percent inadequate to the number of call-ins. So I imagine that the lines became maxed out again with a relatively equal number of votes for each contestant with the winner based on the difference, the minor vagaries, of each incoming line's hardware.

Maybe Chris really should have won? We will never know.

That sounds absolutely right. Although AI may not be "rigged", it is certainly an experiment with no controls or boundaries. Some people get through, sometimes 50-100 times, while others cannot cast 1 vote. I personally tried voting, but was never ever able to get through. In addition, Cingular customers have an added advantage, because they can text in their vote. They dont need to struggle through the busy phone lines. Also, how do we know who is counting the votes, and if they are being counted correctly. It is like when a teacher imposes a curve on the test- It alters everyones score. So, how are the votes being tallied, and what type of mathematical system are they using. So AI may not be "rigged", but it sure is fishy the way things have turned out.
Kristina- chris lover

This is my idea for the voting system:

1 vote for each phone number (If you have a cell phone and a home phone you can vote 2 times.)
Then, you can vote online 1 time per IP address.

This way you can make sure everyone gets there input in and it also prevents a mass group of people taking up the phone lines and not allowing some people to vote. It also allows for more accuracy with the probability of who america really wants to win.