Hi! Thanks for reaching out about the issue with the final 30 votes for John during the American Idol finale. I want to make sure I fully understand—were you trying to cast the full 30 votes all at once at the end of the show, and the apps didn't let you? Or was it that you had already cast some votes earlier and then couldn’t complete the rest at the end?

Also, were you using all three voting methods (online, app, and text) or just one? Knowing this helps me figure out if the vote limit per method might have affected your experience.

In general, American Idol’s voting rules allow up to 10 votes per contestant per method, totaling 30 votes across all three methods. Once you hit that limit for a method, you can’t cast more votes through it for that contestant in that episode. For example, if you voted 10 times via the app early on, the app won’t accept more votes for John later.

If the apps didn’t let you vote because you reached the limit, this would be expected behavior. However, if you weren’t at the limit and still couldn’t vote, then it sounds like there might be a technical issue.

Here’s what I recommend you try:

1. Confirm how many votes per method you cast before trying the last votes.
2. Try voting through a different method (if available). For example, if the app didn’t work, try online or texting.
3. Clear your browser cache or reinstall the app to rule out any glitch interfering with voting.
4. Make sure your internet connection is stable during voting.

If after these steps you’re still unable to submit votes despite not hitting the limits, it could be a wider technical problem affecting many users. In that case, I can escalate this to our technical team or you can send a detailed report to [email protected] for further investigation.

Does this sound like what you experienced? Feel free to share more details, and I’ll guide you through!

I can't try to enter votes now. I did not enter more than 10 except at the beginning of the finale when voting for John Foster when there were 3 idols left. After just 2 left, I went back into all 3 ways, but they still showed the previous voting I had done and would not ever clear for my 30 finale votes for John.

Thank you for the extra details—that helps clarify the situation a lot. It sounds like you voted up to 10 times for John Foster when there were 3 finalists left, which is expected since there's a limit of 10 votes per method per contestant. Then, when it went down to the final 2, you tried to cast additional votes through all 3 methods to hit the overall 30 votes for the finale, but the apps still showed your previous votes and wouldn’t reset or clear for new voting.

This aligns with how the American Idol voting system is designed: your previous votes for John in the same voting episode carry over and count toward your total allowed votes. So, if you already used the votes early in the finale, the app and other voting methods won’t reset your count or allow more than 10 votes per method in total for that contestant, even as the competition narrows from 3 to 2 finalists.

I realize this can be a bit confusing, but the system tracks votes throughout the entire voting window during the finale episode, not just for the last segment or after the number of finalists changes. So the "previous voting not clearing" you saw is actually the system enforcing the voting limits.

If you want to maximize your votes, the key is to distribute them across the three voting methods (app, online, text), making sure not to exceed 10 votes per method for John Foster in the finale episode.

Does that explanation help? If you want, I can also walk you through checking your votes or trying another method for any future voting rounds! Let me know.

So if you entered all 30 votes for John or Jamal, they just carried over to them in the ending finale as 30.

Great question! To clarify, the total voting limit for each contestant in the finale is 30 votes per person—10 votes allowed per each of the three voting methods (app, online, text). These votes are cumulative throughout the entire finale voting window, not split into separate rounds for "before" and "after" finalists get eliminated.

So, if you cast all 30 votes for John or Jamal early in the finale when there were 3 or 2 finalists left, those votes carry over as your total count. The system does not reset or give you a new set of 30 votes once the number of finalists changes. The votes you cast at any point during the finale voting period get counted together.

This means you can't get a fresh set of 30 votes for the "ending finale" separately after already using your votes earlier in the same finale episode. Your voting power of 30 votes per contestant per episode is a single maximum that applies across the whole voting period.

If you want a refresher on the voting methods and limits, you can cast up to 10 votes per contestant on each method, totaling 30 votes maximum per contestant per voting episode3 7.

Does this clear things up? If you have any more questions about voting or want help checking your vote status, I’m here to assist!