Archive through May 22, 2003
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TV ClubHouse: Archive: American Idol (FOX): Final Votes: Archive through May 22, 2003

Cathie

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 09:38 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
After Ryan corrected the vote count he said the difference between Clay and Ruben was 1,335 votes. Out of 25,000,000 that is amazing! I would say we have two winners!

Simon mentioned that their CDs would both be released on the same day and that would be the real test. I agree--people will vote as many times as possible (me included), but not many will buy more than one CD.

Crossfire

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 09:41 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Saturated phones. My guess is that had the phone capacity scaled properly to tally every vote, OR if people had been limited to one call, a clear winner would have emerged.

Surprising that people are not upset about this.

Seamonkey

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 10:03 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Look in other threads, Bob calculated what the difference really would be, given the total votes and the percentages and it was more like 130,000. Still close but not THAT close.

Seamonkey

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 10:06 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
ok.. here are Bob's calculations..

The actual difference in votes is around 134,400 and not either of the numbers Ryan said!

Why does AI have so much trouble getting the vote count right?

24,000,000 * 50.28% = 12,067,200
24,000,000 * 49.72% = 11,932,800

12,067,200 - 11,932,800 = 134,400

Still a close vote, just not as close.

Fabnsab

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 - 10:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
WTG Bob, for doing what a whole slew of overpaid people on Fox and AI couldn't do.

Azriel

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 05:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm pretty sure that exactly 24 million people did not call in a vote. They probably rounded the number of votes off to the nearest million and the difference in votes that they gave might still be correct.

Jkm

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:06 am EditMoveDeleteIP
(chuckles on the vote tallies -- can't help myself - -here goes)


So, How close was the vote in Florida??? Any chance we need to check the "chads" of the phone world? I demand a recount!!

(sneaks away realizing how dumb that old joke is......)

Prisonerno6

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:37 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Nope, the error was Ryan not understanding what he was being handed on the little card (at least that's what he said this morning on the Today show).

Even if they rounded off the 24 million votes, the difference is still over 130,000 votes. Substitutie 23,500,000 (the lowest vote total that can be rounded to 24 million) for 24,000,000 in Bob's calculations and the difference is 131,600. Of course, if the number of votes was over 24 million, the difference would be greater.

Spygirl

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:45 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Yeah, on the Today Show, Ryan confirmed that the difference was over 130,000. He couldn't read the card he was handed. Guess he'll have to go back and apologize to the accountants for saying they were drunk. LOL

Prisonerno6

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:53 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm just reading some articles about the win, and apparently no one did the math. They all have the 1335 number as the difference.

Foliage

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 06:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Eventhough statistically 130,000 is a more reasonable variance in a total voting pool of 24 million, I contend the voting could not be accurate because of limited access. The fact that I could only register 1 vote in 3 hours from North Carolina (obviously a Clay biased area)while folks in other areas could get in relatively easily will skew the results. I'm not saying that Ruben would have lost but that the AI voting methodology is flawed statistically.

Foliage

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 07:00 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I imagine the articles were written last night before AI realized they didn't know how to place decimals!

Wcv63

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 07:12 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Prisoner and Foliage, in all actuality the "media" isn't really too concerned with the "facts." If it's reported in one place, that's sure as heck good enough for them to pick it up and run with it.

How many "reporters" (and I use the term loosely) jumped on the media hype bandwagon without knowing a gosh durn thing about the show or the contestants? A lot.

One "supposedly reputable" news source continually reported the third contestant's name as Catherine Klock. They corrected it to Kim Klocke...but never could quite get it right.

The good news is that according to Clay's friends he is both happy and relieved with last night's results. Therefore I am too. He truly believes that God has a plan for him and lives his life according to his motto; "It's not important HOW you make a difference. It's just important that you DO."

So Bravo Clay and congratulations Ruben. May success rain happiness upon your lives.

Peepinagain

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 07:15 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Someone said that the percentage Ruben won by is equal to their percentage of error!

Tishala

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 07:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Good Day L.A., the Fox affiliate here, just corrected last night's totals and said that the correct difference is "between" 130,000 and 135,000 votes. At last!

Seamonkey

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 10:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
The View also reported the mess-up with the reported vote difference.. next time they need to spell it out for him on the card ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND.

And as Star Jones pointed out, Rubin didn't just get the 135000 but also 12 million votes.

And I'm gobsmacked (just love that word) that some Clay fans seem to think that only Clay fans had trouble getting calls in. Personally I voted for three straight hours, for Ruben, on one landline phone, no cell, no second line, no text messaging, no recruited friends or family and at the best I may have gotten thru 1 in 10 times and most of those were in hour three.

Prisoner, I just shake my head over the lack of editting at times. It was instantly obvious to me that Ryan's reported vote difference was off by a power of 10 and then he went the wrong direction :)

Crossfire

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 11:12 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Hahahaha Gobsmacked.

Please don't be angry if you see that again around here at some point. Great word, right up there with I believe it was 'squicked' that I saw here a week or two ago.

Seamonkey

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 11:41 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Ah well, "gobsmacked" is a favorite if you watch much BBC America.

Now, "confustigated" is a word that was coined in a chat I was in a few years back, and I like that one as well.

Marymc

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 11:52 am EditMoveDeleteIP
i've always heard it as "obfusticated"....

either way...i like 'em both

Sadiesmom

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 12:49 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
SOmewhere else it was mentioned that the votes got skewed to the other contestant in some areas with text messaging. If you voted for 1, it said you voted for 2 and the reverse. Some also clained it happened with the phones.
Very junior high, typical Fox.

Melgal

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 12:58 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Here's an **exclusive** from the Drudge report: http://www.drudgereport.com/idol1.htm

I have a fundamental question. If the phones lines are constantly busy, why is there such a difference in the number of votes? Shouldn't both lines - at capacity - be able to process virtually the same number of votes for the same period of time? I never understood that aspect....

I also just wanted to add that I would have been happy for either of them to win. They are class acts and will both do very, very well.

Bastable

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 01:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Melgal, not all the lines were jammed everywhere. It depended on where in the country you were, since different regions allocated different numbers of lines to the AI call-in. So since some areas had no irregularities, a voting disparity could emerge.

Gee, it's sounding a lot like November 2000, isn't it? Except, as Ryan Seacrest pointed out last night, more people probably voted for the American Idol than voted for the American president.

Seamonkey

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 01:14 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Congrats to my paper or Reuters (which my paper quoted) for getting the difference right at 130,000.

Another stat is that 250,000 votes were received during the current season, more than double those phoned in last year.

Melgal

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 01:16 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Ah - I didn't realize that. Thanks Bastable.

LOL - I don't even want to go there if they really do a recount. I just think it doesn't matter at this point. As I said, they're both great and will do well. I know it's often said that "any publicity is good publicity", but for me - for this situation - that won't be true!

Jimmer

Thursday, May 22, 2003 - 01:21 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm a Clay fan who also appreciates Ruben's performances. No recount please! Let's move on and let these guys (and Kim hopefully) produce some good CDs.