Voting - Manipulation/Questions/Comments

[BravoFan]

I just posted this in another thread, but I will post here too.

My mother said she tried voting for Josh for the entire 2 hours and was never able to get through.

I am no telecom expert, but I'm wondering if all lines aren't tied together and the reason you do or don't get a busy signal has something to do with the 1 circuit that all lines are part of....or perhaps even the region you are calling from.

I do not believe there's anything fishy going on. They wouldn't risk the legal ramifications if they were to "fix" the results.

[hazyshadeof]

I don't believe it either, I was merely speculating. Even if it was, we'd never be able to find out.

[AnnaRHR]

I never thought of it being a regional thing, but that is a possibility. I live in Philadelphia, but I'm visiting family in the South Side of CHicago now, so maybe people are bigger Rickey fans in the Chicago area than elsewhere. I can see that, seeing as Chicago is largely Black and thus more inclined to poll larger numbers of votes for R&B singers like Ruben, Rickey, and Kim L., and Trenyce to a lesser extent, so that could explain why these singers were so busy in my region, while other singers were more popular in other regions. Other viewers are likely popular in other regions - country singers in the South, R&B singers in urban regions, and each of these singers in their home region.

[Crystal]

Phone lines being busy/not-busy is most likely an infrastructure problem and not a manipulation problem.

Cells are set up throughout the country acting as switches to control the flow of electrons through the circuitry. Various regions of the country may have higher voter turnout for certain individuals thereby increasing the local load rate whereas other cells may be experiencing lower load rates. A higher load means longer waits.

Another possibility is the hardware itself. Perhaps some cells have upgraded hardware with greater speed or band width and can support higher load rates whereas other cells with older hardware can't push as much data through.

[Pabby]

Originally posted by hazyshadeof
Have you ever wondered if they force busy signals for certain contestants? A number of people I know said they couldn't get through on Julia's number for over an hour. Makes you wonder a little, and I'm not a big fan of conspiracy theories.

I have spoken to many people who were unable to get through on the phone lines last week in voting for Charles -- callers repeatedly received a "This number has been disconnected" message or just ringing with no answer. This was not due to misdialing by the caller, as you were later able to get through using the redial. Also, the disconnect message was not the usual AT&T operator message or the "all circuits are busy" message. I am curious how a caller is able to complete 200 or more calls for a contestant as popular as Clay or Ruben, whose lines should be the busiest, while other callers are unable to get through at all for Charles and now, possibly, Julia.

I don't think it is regional, because I'm not from a state where any of the contestants would have a "built-in" fanbase, and the callers who had problems were not all from the same area -- they were spread out all over the country.

[AnnaRHR]

Rickey also was busy for one hour and fifteen minutes and was in the bottom three, so I will be very frustrated if he gets voted out soon.

And I also couldn't get through for Charles last week, but Ruben was not busy at all, which was strange.

[BravoFan]

Crystal, THANK YOU!

Clearly I am no expert, but you sound like you know what you are talking about!

[JDfan]

I live in VA and Julia's line was busy the moment the show went off the air. I couldn't get through until an hour later. And I tried every 5-10 minutes. If her lines were that busy then why was she eliminated?

[Gizmo82]

Well on Good Day Live today they were saying that there is possibly ANOTHER AI scandal.... that this weeks votes could be inncorrect.... I didn't get all of the details because some idiot called in the middle of the piece.... but they were saying that Julia might not have actually had the lowest amount of votes this week, I guess that her number was messed up somehow, and she could have lost a TON of east coast votes, (and seeing as how she is from CT, that could have been a real issue).... in any case, there is nothing tey can do about it, she is already eliminated, but it is interesting that there is actually a good chance that Kim was the one booted.....

[tomboy66]

Do you usually vote for your fave? I vote for my man, Clay, usually 30 times or so. LOL I know, I know.