The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

Did you vote for an American Idol?

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On May 20, 2009, twenty-three-year-old guitar-strumming

Kris Allen captivated the audience of American Idol

with his rendition of Keith Urban’s “Kiss a Girl” and

Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine.” By receiving a

majority of the nearly 100 million “votes”—by tele-

phone and text message—Allen became the American

Idolfor 2009.

Although pundits had for years grumbled that

Americans cared more about pop stars on American Idol

than about their president, this may not have been true

in 2009. The producers of the show did not release the

exact number of votes for Allen, but they did say the

vote was close; probably he received no more than

55 million. Six months earlier, presidential candidates

Barack Obama and John McCain received more votes

than Allen, with 69 million and 60 million respectively.

The comparison, of course, is unsound. American

Idolfans often cast multiple votes for their favorite;

some spent hundreds of dollars in phone and texting

fees. A better comparison is of voter turnout for presi-

dential elections nowadays and during the late nine-

teenth century. Since 1946, fewer than half of the

eligible voters have on the average voted in presiden-

tial elections. By contrast, over three-fourths of eligible