Let's go E-Train!!! Send out a link to that family member, friend, sister-in-law, buddy whoever!! We are @ 60 votes short of a win.. We are soo close now. Let's get that link sent out with a phone call too.

Poll closes at 12 midnight tonight. Don't hesitate, yes, call, send that E-mail and get that extra vote.. :chloe: :chloe: :chloe:

http://americanidolamericanidol.blogspot.c...y-aiken-vs.html

Down 49 now. I cashed in some favor chips with some of my family. I hope it helps.!! :elliottelliott:

OH MY!!! ITS SOOO SOO CLOSE!! 50% - 50%

holy closeness!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elliott is only down 4 votes now at 7:00 p.m.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 3 votes down. We can do this E-train!

4 ahead now. Come on E train. Find those computers. Call those friends. We can do it.

10 behind. Yikes

I have emailed and asked friends to vote and forward the email to their friends.I have been hearing back from them that they are voting!!

Next I will call them to make sure that they saw the email!!

SPOILER ALERT!! I've been holding my breath . . . I don't get it. Why's it that we're told only 1 IP per vote, when I've been voting repeatedly all day to try and hold up to the votes so quickly coming in for Clay? I thought in the final hours of voting for Carrie that we were allowed to vote indefinitely. Why must this rule be followed NOW?? I couldn't help but to let this out, because their votes keep easily jumping ahead. FYI, only at least while we're in this last leg!! C'MON try it and see!! Okay, 'nuff said!!




ETA: SO, is EVERYONE having this issue of not being able to vote more than once? Or is everyone too intimidated by this cheating fear?!?
What's so wrong with this poll anyway?

It will only let me vote one time. If I try again it tells me I have already voted. Wish I could help. :(

Me, too. Every time I try to vote again at work or at home, it tells me my vote's already been counted, no matter how many days have gone by.

me three!!!
i did vote on different computers, but only once on each. Believe me, i tried!

Ignore what that says about being counted. I use the "Return to Poll" link at the bottom, and continue the cycle!! CLICK ELLIOTT YAMIN, VOTE, RETURN TO POLL -----> and again and again . . . etc., etc. WE GOTTA GET ON THIS!!! They keep passing by a long shot!!! That's after they only fall behind by 4!!


ETA again!! SOMETHING'S rather fishy with this poll!! The numbers keep cyclically changing back and then forward with them way in the lead again of course!! Is this just me? Dayam!!

if it's working for you, great, but the vote count doesnt change for me. :chloe:

and you aren't getting already voted? only way to win is clear cookies and use different isp i thought

they are now ahead 127 votes... they are power voting now... do or die you all

I have tried clearing cookies...not working,,,,called everyone I know...
used husbands work computers...that's all I got... :chloe: :chloe:
1 hour left..lets go etrain....

no one has dial up?

eta they are gianing by 20 votes per min or less

I have DSL & when I tried to vote again it said me vote had already been counted. :(

In dial up if you hang up and redial the ip changes... not so with most dsl or cable modems. unless in command prompt you do a ipconfig refresh then ipconfig renew... but some won't change and if you have a router, you must do so through it.

It has only let me vote once and I have tried and tried- ignored that it said my vote has already been counted but still the count stayed the same. The Claymates have gotten ahead somehow. So if anyone can vote more than once I say give it all you've got. I have emailed everyone in my address book and have heard back from most of them that they voted. I don't know what else to do. I've tried all the other computers in the house and no luck.

I think we gave it a good shot and I still think that the Claymates are up to something- maybe a lot of them just waited until late tonght to vote or maybe it is something a bit more unethical. But that's ok. I don't think that anyone other than us thought we would have been this close.

Vote on if you can...

well I'm not going to bring up ethics here... and it's too late to get into a debate about it... but the rules state, one vote per IP... and no use of scripts.

So do what ever you can, willing to, or are able to because there is just 35 min left.. and we are down almost 100 votes

The Bo/Carrie poll was suspended today and a new poll was started. This is the reason:

This poll was suspended by polldaddy.com for illegal voting. The tally was:

Bo 294505
Carrie 287789

I don't know what else to do to prevent illegal voting, so I've set up a new poll. This poll will still end tonight, and the new totals will be added to the old ones. Clearly, they aren't actually reflective of the amount of people voting, but those who have elected to cheat have made determining that impossible. Thus, take the results for what they are. If I sound disappointed, it's because I am.

Well it's over.

IDOL MADNESS: Final Results and a Statement About the Game

What a crazy ride it's been.

IDOL MADNESS is now over, and the winner has been determined.

Before we get to that, however, a note about the game.

The idea for this game originated from an Idol Thoughts reader, and we determined that I would host it on my site. The hope was that we would be able to have a fun, spirited NCAA bracket style tournament among the Idol finalists, and determine who the Idol Thoughts readers thought was the best Idol contestant ever. Perhaps naively, we did not imagine how word would spread and the different fanbases would mobilize to support their favorites.

At first it was exciting -- in addition to bringing new readers to my blog, I thought it might be an interesting experiment in determining which finalists still had the largest fanbases. And for the first several rounds, voting turned out to be interesting. There was only one major upset in the first round (Diana Degarmo losing to Bucky Covington), and several surprises became clear, like the size of Constantine Maroulis, Bo Bice and Anthony Fedorov's fanbases. Voting was fair, results were interesting, and, by most accounts, everyone was having a good time.

As we got into the Elite 8 and Final Four, however, a bit of shadiness started to happen. Numbers started to look strange. I received word from polldaddy.com and Vizu.com, who were hosting the respective rounds, that illegal scripting had taken place. Polls were restarted; numbers were watched; warnings were issued. Everything was done in the interest of fairness.

I have no vested interest in any of these contestants -- I considered myself an anthropologist of sorts, interested only in seeing how several years of Idol history would play out in a competition like this. I did not care who won. I mean, if I was going to be pulling for anyone it would have been Kelly Clarkson, and she was upset early on. Again -- I had no interest in rigging the votes one way or another -- I did not care who won.

Most of you did not cheat, but those who did really put a damper on the fun of those who did not.

I tried everything I could to keep the game as fair as possible. If you feel like I could have done more, I apologize. I tried to determine, best I could, who to move on to the finals, based on the corrupted scores. If I made a wrong decision in not just canceling the game completely at the point I realized people were cheating, I apologize. But I was trying to finish the game for those who were playing fairly and had invested time in voting. If you voted and you feel like you wasted your time, I am sorry.

So, the winner of IDOL MADNESS is Clay Aiken, with Elliott Yamin coming in a close 2nd place, Bo Bice in 3rd and Carrie Underwoodin 4th. I have to admit, very sadly, it's a bit of a hollow result, since there is no doubt the game has been corrupted by fans on ALL sides (this has been confirmed to me by polldaddy.com.)

But I will say this -- Clay, Elliott, Carrie and Bo would be proud to know they have some extremely passionate and loyal fans, and even aside from the cheating, these four definitely did have the most total amount of fans vote. I believe Constantine Maroulis, Anthony Fedorov, Kelly Clarkson, Josh Gracin, Jasmine Trias, Kellie Pickler, Ace Young and many more would be pleased to know there fans are so devoted as well.

What I bet they would not be proud of is the cheating that took place for, let's face it, a fairly meaningless result (there's no prize involved, after all). Like I said, most of you did not cheat, but those who did really put a damper on the fun of those who did not. Clay, Elliott, Carrie and Bo would also likely not be proud of the level of vitriol you addressed each other and, quite frankly, me.

So there it is...the end of IDOL MADNESS. I wish it would have ended on a more celebratory note, but I thank those of you who committed to the game and participated fairly, and I hope if you've like other parts of Idol Thoughts you'll come back and check out what's going on here.

his fans are the biggest cheaters i have ever seen in my life, and i bet you and i could state it as a fact.

It was great that so many people (fans, friends, family, strangers, etc.), were willing to vote for Elliott after being requested to do so. That part was pretty cool.

Too bad cheating took place on the polls. The rules were pretty simple. There was no good reason to break them.

The site owner seemed pretty sad and disappointed with the cheating. Can't blame her. It kinda made me sad too.

What makes me sad is when fans don't participate or don't care about giving a vote to Elliott.. That did not happen on this series of polls.


We all came together as a force to vote and it shows E-MAZING TEAM WORK and dedication even if it is just a poll as some say.

Elliott fans did win and it is because the fans came together and voted , some for hours on some of the challenges. So many from the E-Train, E_maniacs, Moosak Sistas and all the fans who voted should be very proud of their efforts.

Not too long ago there was a poll on the American Idol site . Elliott had zero.It was reported to us and we voted and finally tied with Constantine.. We did not leave Elliott with no votes. We voted because we wanted to show that Elliott does have a dedicated and committed fanbase and sacrificed their time to bring up the numbers.. :1word:

AMEN!! :friends2:

All I can say is that I believe all of Elliott's votes were gotten fair and square.
He came in second, which is OK, because we know that we didn't cheat to get him there. And it was a close second, so he was represented very well.

We worked hard and we should feel satisfied that Elliott will always be a winner. I would rather he come in second, and not have his name be associated with cheating. Poor Clay, his fans give him a bad rep, even if it not deserved. That is why I hope, although we are rabid, that we never do anything to smudge Elliott's name or reputation.........

But, I really didn't have to say that, because we are all good people here....and we would never do anything to hurt Elliott in any way...........

We gave it our best shot....and that's what is important... :chloe:
No biggie... :elliottcap2:

:agreed: :goodpost:

:chloe: