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The Voice: Thousands of votes uncounted due to tiny mistake
The Voice crowned 24-year-old Lachie Gill as the winner on Sunday night, but a small mistake made by thousands of voters has meant not all the votes were counted.
The program has already been slammed by irate viewers for the Melbourne singer’s win, with people upset that “three people of colour” lost to Lachie from Team Rita. To add to the controversy, news.com.au has reported that thousands of votes disappeared when fans used the wrong phone number.
Fans were able to vote by texting the name of their favourite contestant to 0417 779 667 up to three times per person. Unfortunately, many people accidentally texted Brisbane man Antoni instead as his number was one number off from the correct text line.
The publication reported that the 50-year-old received thousands of texts and hundreds of calls that went uncounted, with the ‘votes’ rapidly increasing while the show was airing.
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“I deleted the first few hundred [messages] because I thought I was being spammed, not realising people were voting. I have not watched the show and had no idea why people were texting me the contestant names,” he explained.
“It wasn’t until I saw an advert with the mobile number posted that I realised how close it was to my number…and the penny dropped.
“I have probably a couple thousand texts that could be added up, and a few hundred voice messages where people verbally voted,” he told news.com.au
Antonio supposedly deleted hundreds of messages, so it’s hard to tell if the uncounted votes could have changed the outcome of the show.
Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Seven for comment.
This comes after The Voice disappointed viewers when Lachie was announced as the winner, overlooking the other diverse finalists.
“Has Australia gone backwards? The white boy who is mediocre wins, and the 3 non-white contestants with a better range and vocals did not make it? This is a joke,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“3 people of colour, all unbelievably incredible singers and the white boy wins it! Bloody Straya! If you seriously believe that Lachie is a better singer than Thando then you are part of the problem! Bullsh*t!” another added.
“Is it The Voice we are voting for? It certainly isn’t diversity and inclusion,” a third chimed in.
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