American Idol Voting Surpasses Highest Total of Voters for President

I'd guess that the idol voting age mix reflects something slightly different than the election voting age mix.

Two things. One, everyone can vote on American Idol where as only U.S. citizens over the age of 18 can vote for the President. So that's 10 million illegal immigrants that can vote right there, but can vote for their American Idol. Secondly, this was so overhyped by Ryan Seacrest and then the media picked up his quote about more votes than votes for the last President. The reason is that American Idol allows for multiple votes by the SAME person. You can SMS or call until your fingers fall off. It would be like if you went to the polling booth and pulled the lever 10 times because you really REALLY like President Bush. So although there was 66 million votes, you can probably divide that number by 10 (average number of votes per person) and you get only 6.6 million voters. (I'm factoring in people that vote like 50 times to get an average of 10, since most people probably only vote 1-5 times.) So, rest assured, the sky isn't falling just yet.

I think a poll of several thousand people taken after the show would be a better indication of what the American people really think. People voting hundreds of times is no reflection of what we think. I refuse to stay on my computer for hours just to cast as many votes as I can for AI. Anyone who chooses to vote hundreds of times has completely lost touch with reality and needs to get a life. Yet, those are the people who are calling the shots on this show?!?!?! Is this supposed to be a bona fide singing competition or something else??? Simon Fuller -- hire a reputable pollster to conduct a poll after the show. It could be randomly selected households that cross all sectors of demographics. Or, have a panel of judges as a percentage of the vote, and the other crazy vote that really does not represent the public but only people who are nutty enough to case their votes over and ovaer and over, count as 50%.