Producers, AT&T say Idol voting fair, verified

By Laura Stevens

LITTLE ROCK — Complaints about unfair voting tactics in last week's American Idol finale bubbled out of the blogosphere and surfaced nationally Wednesday, but the show's producers and sponsor AT&T defended the vote that resulted in Arkansan Kris Allen winning the title.

In its coverage of the Idol frenzy locally, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on May 20 that AT&T, a corporate sponsor of the televised competition, provided more than 30 cell phones as well as instruction on "power texting" at a party at the Peabody Little Rock hotel on the competition's final performance night, May 19. Power texting refers to methods by which a caller can send as many as 10 votes at once.

AT&T representatives also made 50 text-ready phones available at a watch party at Conway's Estes Stadium and provided a cell-phone charging station, the newspaper reported. AT&T's mobile-phone network is the only one on which Idol watchers can cast votes through text messages.

Supporters of runner-up Adam Lambert claimed voting irregularities on Internet chat boards, according to a story in Wednesday's New York Times.

In a prepared statement Wednesday, Fox Broadcasting Co. said, "Fox and the producers of American Idol are absolutely certain that the results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified. Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol."

Fox has a third-party system in place to ensure that votes are fair, and there's no way that a few individuals could have tainted the process, the company added.

At the Peabody watch party, Bobbie Kierna of Greenbrier voted 10,840 times on one of the phones provided by AT&T at a roped-off area with signs advertising it as a "Texting Zone." She said she stayed until 11:48 p.m. to vote for Allen, who was in school with her daughter at the University of Central Arkansas.

AT&T set up a 15-foot-tall logo balloon in the hotel's lobby and used AT&T tablecloths, said Greg Mosser, director of catering and conference services at the Peabody. Two local store managers went to the event, he said, and the company gave away phones as part of the promotional event, held with radio station KLAL-FM, Alice 107.7.

At last week's event, Matt Jordan, senior marketing manager for AT&T, said the company set up the "Texting Zone" as an official sponsor of American Idol. A handful of AT&T staff members were there, handing out fliers and teaching people to power text.

At Estes Stadium at UCA, a handful of people wearing polo shirts with the AT&T logo set up a couple of tables, signs and a charging station for cell phones.

Sonja Keith, an organizer for the Kris Allen Kick Awesome Task Force, said she had talked to a local AT&T representative about problems with getting through to American Idol voting lines at a previous watch party, as well as trying to secure prizes as giveaways, when he mentioned that representatives would be at the Peabody watch party and could also go to Conway.

In a prepared statement Wednesday on the allegations, AT&T said, "In Arkansas, a few local AT&T employees were invited to attend two local watch parties organized by the community. Caught up in the enthusiasm of rooting for their hometown contestant, they brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested."

In the future, AT&T will make sure employees "understand our sponsorship celebrates the competition, not individual contestants," according to the statement. "That said, it's quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results."

Keith said she's upset that AT&T's involvement, which she felt was a good thing, has cast a shadow over Allen's victory.

"I don't think it influenced the outcome," she said. "I think it's sad that a week later, this kind of thing has come up because I think it's shortchanging Kris Allen." Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Christman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas, Pages 9, 16 on 05/28/2009