Why would more people in the US vote for American Idol than in an election?

Question

its a sad, sad thing, but true

for those who think AI voting #'s are inflated due to people voting more than once, you are right, but it is still estimated that there are more individual voters than who turn out for elections - and elections are free

and further, if it is mainly young people voting for AI, does that mean when they get older, they are more likely to vote in a political election as they are "experienced voters" and see the results of their actions?

Answer 1

because it is on TV....they don't have to leave the house. Sad it is my friend.

Answer 2

American Idol reports votes, not people. There is nothing like a high speed texting 12 year old to inflate the results.

Besides, it is not true that more people voted on AI than in an election. In the last presidential election there were 122,267,553 votes cast. The record AI show had 36 million viewers and 63 million votes, or about half those case in the presidential election.

See: http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/archives/2006/05/american-idol-a.html
and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_2004

Answer 3

A few reasons.

1. It's a direct democracy, rather than a republic. Ultimately, the popular vote doesn't matter. We vote for the people to vote for us. And then we vote in the popular vote, which is pointless. In American Idol, five million people vote for candidate A, and six million for B, B wins. With our president, you can vote whatever you want, and it still doesn't matter.
2. Most candidates suck, so most people don't care one way or the other.
3. American Idol is on the all-mighty TV.
4. Presidents are too high, we don't feel the effects of them.
5. We can send a text, and it's easy. To get up and go somewhere is hard.

Answer 4

It's not the same type of voting system. On American Idol, the same person can vote over and over again... In the Presidential Election, everyone is only allowed to vote once (but sometimes dead people vote).

Answer 5

that's simple, American Idol are SINGERS, who entertain.
Elections are Politicians who at the push of a button could destroy the U.S. Not a great thing to have hung on your shoulders. Just like the chaos that is happening now, high gas prices, people loosing their homes from property taxes (which if it were know) is probably going overseas.
Then the war, that would have been done and over with, had we gone after the right people in the first place, and not a revenge deal, for a Daddy.

Answer 6

because at least the American Idol contestant will just prolly go on to get a record deal and make music and not screw you on a daily basis.

Answer 7

because unlike political elections, american idol contestants wont screw you over with their 'policies' to make the usa top dog again

Answer 8

The voting isn't as rigged and the people are not as evil

Answer 9

Too much polling. Americans feel the outcome is imminent, so what's the point in voting?

Answer 10

Because apparently, some of us are more inclined to get up off our butts for entertainment and not to secure our choice future leaders... Sad, isn't it?

Answer 11

Politics doesn't have a hyped up advertising campaign and prime time competition shows.